Warriors vs Spartans

Fri 04, 2010 11:43

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Whitley Warriors will be looking for another excellent Hillheads attendance when they play their first home game of the English National League play-offs tomorrow evening (face-off 6.30pm), against Sheffield Spartans.

“We had around 1200 at the crucial Nottingham game in early March,” said player/coach Simon Leach, “and followed that up with another decent sized crowd when we were presented with the league trophy a couple of weeks later.

 “So we are hoping for another good turn-out tomorrow for what should be a great game; and are looking for the regions fans in need of their hockey fix, to come along for the match and get behind us.”

Having won their opening play-off game away to Blackburn Hawks last Sunday, Leach knows Whitley can take a big step towards the final with a victory tomorrow and will be looking for his players to carry on where they left off. 

“To be honest, because we were chasing the league title, we have been playing play-off hockey for quite a few weeks now,” the coach continued, “and I won’t be asking the players to do anything that hasn’t been the norm since the turn of the year.”

Whitley have certainly had the better of the Spartans this season, winning all four league games, but that Leach admits, counts for nothing now.

“That form goes out of the window in the play-offs,” he said, “our previous success against them - as it was with Blackburn last week – is irrelevant and they will probably have been working hard on ways to get the better of us this time; but it is up to us to be good enough to counteract whatever they can throw at us and limit their goalscoring opportunities in much the same way we did in the league games.

“We are strong defensively and have good options in attack, so as long as we work hard and stick together, and do all the things that brought us that league success, I have every confidence that we can win and sit top of the group come the end of the game.”

The Warriors have only Garry Dowd - injured in the first period at Blackburn last Sunday - missing from their line-up tomorrow, but have a ready-made replacement in the shape of Leach, who was behind the bench for that game.

Tickets, priced at £7 for adults and £5 for children & concessions, are available on the door tomorrow night.