Successful start

Fri 04, 2010 11:40

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Whitley Warriors coach Simon Leach was delighted to see his side get off to a successful start in the English National League Play-Offs, but felt they did not fire on all cylinders in the 2-1 win away to Blackburn.

“It was a good road win, but I think we can play a lot better,” he said, “but the important thing was that we began with a victory.

“Blackburn is never an easy place to go and they have been winning a lot of games recently, but this was a typical encounter between the two sides at the Blackburn Arena, with neither side prepared to give anything away.

“Even though we lost Garry Dowd to injury early in the game, and had to play with just four defenders for the rest of the night, Adam Reynolds came up with a goal late in the first.

“But they pressured us in the middle session,” Leach added, “and we had netminder James Flavell to thank for some great stops in the last 40 minutes especially.”

However, Blackburn did pull level through Aaron Davies with just 63 seconds of the middle period remaining and the Whitley coach had to rally his troops in the second interval.

“It was tight all night and you got a feeling that whoever scored next would go on to win the game,” Leach continued.

“Fortunately that proved to be us with Ryan Sample hitting the target with a little under five minutes left and we were then able to see out the remaining time.”

In such a short series, Sheffield Spartans are the only other side in the group, it is important to get off to a winning start and Leach was pleased to say the least.

“The first game is so important,” he said, “but we have set a marker now and picked up a vital away win.

“Now we can look forward to getting back in front of our own fans next Sunday, when Sheffield are the visitors, safe in the knowledge that we have points on the board; and have taken a step towards the play-off final.”