Guildford Flames’ Head Coach Paul Dixon lamented another poor start to a game after seeing his team fall to a 9-4 home defeat against Telford Tigers on Saturday.

The visitors raced into a 5-0 lead before the Flames clawed the deficit back to one, but the EPL leaders pulled away in the final session to seal the victory.

The Flames completed a miserable weekend with a 5-4 shoot-out defeat at Sheffield Steeldogs the following day and Dixon has demanded an improvement at home to Basingstoke Bison on Wednesday.

“I’m proud of the guys for showing a real response in getting all the way back to within a goal, and in essence being tied with Telford for the final 39 minutes of the hockey game,” said Dixon.

“But that highlights how costly a stretch of game can be in the early going. The Tigers are a terrific hockey club, but there is absolutely no reason in the world why they should be five goals ahead of us after only about 21 minutes of play.

“In the first period, other than the first few minutes out of the gate where we did create a couple of good chances that could have had us in front, we backed ourselves into our own end, and every chance they got went in the net.

“Despite a valiant effort, coming back from that start is a very tall order.

“Sunday was a bit different in that we were in a position late to nail down a win, but unfortunately it went sideways from there.

“We spent nearly a full period more than the other team short-handed, so if you put the game in that context we actually did well to come out of there with a point.

“We now turn our attention to a big local derby Wednesday night where we will try to put together a more complete effort for a full sixty or sixty-plus minutes.”

(Image permission: John Uwins)