Warriors travel to Shropshire this weekend to take on NIHL North strugglers the Telford Titans in a Moralee Conference match up. Whitley are hopeful that veteran forward Karl Culley and youngster Ben Richards will be available after both players missed Whitley’s victory over the Sheffield Spartans last weekend due to injury and illness respectively.
Whitley currently sit 5th in the NIHL North Moralee Conference standings 1 place and 3 points below a play off berth. A victory for Warriors on Sunday against bottom of the table Telford would keep Simon Leach’s side firmly in the play off picture given Whitley still have to play all of sides above them in the table between now and the end of the regular season.
Telford are yet to claim a positive result this season however the Titans have improved in recent weeks as their parent club Telford Tigers have made a number of their fringe players available to Titans. This has significantly improved the NIHL’s side roster and Telford only lost out 4-3 away from home against the Sutton Sting in a recent encounter.
Former Warriors netminder Tom Murdy (brother of current Warrior Daniel Murdy) has played for Titans recently though given he played for Tigers last weekend in the English Premier league it remains to be seen if he will ice against Whitley this coming weekend.
Warriors Coach Simon Leach shared his views on Whitley’s match up against Telford.
“Telford are a much improved team and they are going to be a different side to the one we played earlier this season. We are taking things one game at a time and all of our focus is on the Warriors Titans game this weekend. We will be looking to do all of things that make us a good team and if we do that there’s no reason why we can’t go into Telford and pick up the 2 points on offer.
“We are not sure yet if Karl (Culley) will be back in our line up, he’s been getting some physio this week so we’ll see how he is but we aren’t going to rush anyone back out onto the ice before they are ready.
“The lads who played against Sheffield last weekend did really well and we need them to step up again against Telford. We’ve got 6 d men and plenty of forwards available which enables us to allow players to take the time they need to get back to full fitness.”
Warriors game at Telford faces off at 5.30pm on Sunday evening and updates will be available on the Whitley Warriors Forum for those fans who are not able to travel to the game. Whitley’s next home game is on the 2nd February when Warriors take on local rivals the Billingham Stars in the last regular season game between the 2 sides in the 2013/14 campaign.