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Tigers weekend hit by sickness
Photograph of the Telford Tigers in action against the Basingstoke Bison copyright of Steve Brodie.
A sickness-ravaged Telford Tigers found themselves smothered by a brutal Basingstoke, just 24 hours after falling to Bracknell in a penalty shootout.
And it shows how far the team has come in recent weeks that, even when playing ill or injured, they were so disappointed to come out of the weekend with just one point.
Goalie Martin Clarkson summed up the feeling in the dressing room, saying: "Two months ago we would have taken that point as pretty good.
"If you don't count this weekend we've won four out of the last five games, so we were on a roll. To only get one point out of Bracknell was disappointing.
"?Basingstoke are a good team, but the way we've been playing against other teams we should have done better."
The weekend started positively, with Tigers taking the first period in Bracknell 1-0 through Tom Watkins. Marek Hornak doubled the tally at
43 minutes and Telford looked to be on for another win.
But two goals within as many minutes in the third period brought the Bees back into play, and stalemate in overtime led to a penalty shootout that saw Clarkson beaten twice, giving Bracknell the extra point.
"That was my first penalty shootout this season and they scored two for two unfortunately," said the 21-year-old Welshman. "I'm normally pretty good at them. I think it is so much fun to be in a penalty shootout and I'm glad they do it now to settle the game. When you win in one it's an amazing feeling, but when you lose in one it is horrible."
The netminder also played a leading role in Sunday's home game, picking up the man of the match award after facing 53 shots on his goal from Basingstoke during their 6-3 win.
A tight first period saw Bison score the only goal and, when Tigers equalised at 23:02 - Tom Watkins putting it top shelf, assisted by brother Jack and Daniel MacKriel - the home fans were hopeful of another giant-killing performance like the one that toppled Guildford last week.
However, Basingstoke showed their class with three goals to send Tigers into the break trailing 4-1. That lead was stretched to six against before Telford were able to capture a couple of consolation goals from MacKriel and Ashley Calvert to wrap up a slightly more respectable score.
Clarkson said: "Basingstoke's transitions are very good. As soon as we turnover in their zone they're already coming back on an odd-man rush.
So you've always got to be ready to take a shot when they've got players like Steve Moria out there and Lauko - they can pass and find players really well."
Player-coach Tom Watkins was less than happy with his side's performances after weeks of upward progress.
"We didn't play with enough passion and heart, we didn't finish our hits, we just didn't compete," he said. "I genuinely don't think guys were prepared to play this weekend and they all have to take a look at themselves and ask themselves why not?
"It was much the same in Bracknell. We were in a position to win that game and I'm not going to begrudge us the point, because that's a big point coming out of Bracknell.
"We outshot them 6-1 in overtime and had our chances to win the game and unfortunately it went the other way this time. But looking back at the end of the season I think we will say that was an important point.
"However, we do have a few guys playing sick or carrying knocks and I think we just ran out of steam. Dan Scott was so sick on the bench tonight he had to get off in the first period."
Watkins added: "Basingstoke are a very talented team and maybe we were lucky to come out with a 6-3 score. We made too many mistakes, turned over too many pucks, and those are things we haven't been doing recently. We are a long way from where we need to be.
"But this is just one weekend, one slip up. We can come back and rebound well next weekend."
Tigers now face three road games - at Sheffield, Manchester and Swindon - before their next home fixture, against Guilford on Sunday December 19 at 5.30pm.
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-5 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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