Tom Watkins was happy to see his Telford Tigers players avoid getting into bad habits in their 5-2 victory over Hull Pirates on Sunday.

The result took the EPL champions’ winning run to 12 games and Watkins has urged his teamm to carry that momentum into the play-offs.

“It shouldn’t be hard to get up for a game and I thought we played pretty well – if you don’t play hard or play your normal game, you run a lot of risks,” said Watkins.

“You can pick up bad habits and possibly even injuries, because you’re not playing with the same intensity that you normally do. The guys did a good job.

“We limited Hull to very few odd-man rushes and won a lot of face-offs. We also created a lot of good offense and apart from five minutes at the end of the first period, we were the better side.

“There was a bit of feisty play here and there, and I thought overall it was a good performance in a game that didn’t have a huge amount riding on it.

“But there is still the winning streak and Dougie (Clarkson) is chasing down 50 goals, so the guys have their personal targets.

“There’s every reason for the players to not want any bad habits going into the play-offs.”

(Image permission: Steve Brodie)