Telford Tigers blasted as 'soft' in convincing defeat

Vladimir Luka scored the only goal for Telford, while Brad Day won man of the match on a bad day for the Shropshire side.

And it was a display that left Watkins frustrated.

He said: “There were only a couple of positives to take away from the game. Brad was huge for us and our penalty kill was 100 per cent.

"Other than that I think we were poor from start to finish, too soft physically, poor execution in our systems and with our individual skills and fundamentals, but the most disappointing part was that we didn’t compete at all and if you don’t compete hard every shift there is zero point playing this game.”

Leeds had beaten Telford on all three occasions already this season before this contest and the losing trend continued as the opening period saw the hosts score twice. 

Just five minutes into the game Leeds were ahead when a turnover on the Telford blue line led to Innes Gallagher scoring. Five minutes later the lead was doubled when Kieran Brown found Mac Howlett who beat Day with a wrist shot.

Tigers almost fell further behind moments later when Leeds scored a third goal but it was ruled out by the officials as it appeared the puck had been kicked into the net.

But midway through the second period Leeds did add a third goal when Matt Bissonnette passed from behind the goal to Matt Baron who was unmarked in the slot and Barron shot past Day to give Telford a mountain to climb. Telford’s chances were not helped by the loss of forward David Thomson with a hand injury.

Leeds added a fourth goal 10 minutes from the end of the game when Brown hammered a shot past Day from close range. Day left the game at this point and was replaced by back up Matty Bloor.

Tigers finally got on the scoresheet with eight minutes left to play. Ryan Leese sent a shot on the Leeds goal which was saved by Sam Gospel but Luka was perfectly placed to backhand the rebound past Gospel into the open net.

Leeds sealed the win with five minutes of the game left when Brown’s shot was saved by Bloor but Jordan Buesa was well placed to score on the rebound and end a disappointing night for the visiting team.