Warriors defeat Titans

Whitley Warriors picked up two more English National League points after beating Telford Titans 5-1 at Hillheads last night, but the win was overshadowed by an injury to forward Mark Good during the warm-up.

"Mark took a puck to the face," explained coach Garry Dowd, "and was taken straight to hospital where he will undergo surgery on Monday.

"We know very little other than that at this point," he added, "but everyone at the club wishes him a speedy recovery and hope we can see him back on the ice sooner rather than later."

As to the game, Telford arrived with just ten players, but they all played their hearts out and drew praise from Dowd afterwards.

"Everyone one of them gave 100%," he said, "and credit to them for pushing us all the way. I thought they would tire as the game progressed, but they didn't and were also very disciplined in their approach; they can be very proud of their efforts tonight.

"But it can sometimes be very difficult to play against a team who give that kind of performance," he added, "and to be fair, we weren't 100% ourselves tonight.

"I did keep changing the lines around to try and inject something a little different into our play; and to give some credit to our players as well they have gone out and got the job done, with the result we've picked up two more points."

Two players who caught the coach's eye were forwards Dean Holland and Christian Johnson, who ended up with 1+2 and 0+3 for their efforts.

"Christian - along with Harry Harley - has been getting plenty of ice time recently and you can see an improvement in their performance, he (Christian) had an excellent game tonight and his three assists were just reward for his effort.

"And I thought Dean had a great game too," he added, "he is an aggressive forward who brings Elite League quality to the team and always seems to achieve what he wants one way or another." 

Holland had opened the Whitley scoring in the 6th minute and then set up Jamie Tinsley for the Warriors second early in the middle period.

Telford did pull one back, but further markers from Callum Watson, skipper Rob Wilson and Jordan Barnes were enough to ease Whitley to victory.