Telford Tigers’ Head Coach Tom Watkins is tracking two more import forwards, as he puts the finishing touches to his squad for the new EPL campaign.

A busy summer has already seen the Tigers chief release three overseas players from last season’s line-up, while also introducing Polish netminder Ondrej Raszka.

Skipper Jason Silverthorn and Doug Clarkson take up two more of the available five import berths, after league bosses introduced an extra slot for next season.

Watkins is determined to add a further cutting edge to his strike force, with two extra import signings in the coming weeks.

He said: “The decision to go with four import forwards for next season was made a long time ago. It was very easy to opt for that, along with the import netminder.

“With the directive around having just three imports on the ice, it would be quite restrictive to what we could do with our line-up if we had an import defenseman.

“Bearing in mind the calibre of player we have in defence, including Jonathan Weaver, Sam Zajac, Dan Scott and the others, it was a no-brainer to have four import forwards.”

Watkins kept tabs on one of his targets for much of last season, ahead of a frantic summer in the EPL transfer market.

But with Telford’s pre-season programme now just two months away, he is set to swoop for the as yet unnamed forward in the next few days.

He added: “There is a saying that offence wins games, but defence wins titles. By having Ondrej Raszka at the back, we have a platform that we can build on every day.

“The guys I want to bring in will contribute offensively, but they will also contribute in defence and in the neutral zone.

“I ask all my guys to play 200ft hockey and play hard in every zone.”

(Image permission: Steve Brodie)