Telford Tigers’ Head Coach Tom Watkins has urged his team to end their regular season on a high with victory over MK Lightning on Sunday.

The EPL champions fought a season-long battle for supremacy against Lightning, but will head into the game with a ten point lead after winning 15 games on the run.

Watkins said: “It is so important for us to keep our feet moving and keep this train moving along on Sunday. We’ve got a great run going and we want to keep that.

“For the last two games we’ve played at home we’ve been very good and done a lot of good things.

“We always look forward to playing against Milton Keynes. All the games we’ve played against them have been fun to coach in, and the boys enjoy it as well.

“There’s that rivalry of us being first and them second, so we want to keep that going.”

Sunday’s encounter brings the curtain down on a roller-coaster league campaign for Telford, which saw the club saved during the season by a consortium of local businesses.

Watkins, who will now prepare for the start of the play-offs on 22nd March, paid tribute to the efforts of his men in remaining focused during those turbulent months.

“I’m incredibly proud of all my players – I think where we have been fortunate is that when it comes to hockey, they’ve been able to put things aside and do a professional job,” he added.

“There’s been games where all of us have been through some very uncomfortable situations, but the guys have put their game faces on and got on with the task at hand.

“It has helped us to forget. To be able to carry on, keep the form and keep the way we play has been really exceptional.

(Image permission: Steve Brodie)