Tom Watkins angry at Telford Tigers after big loss to Wildcats
Telford Tigers head coach Tom Watkins said his side were ‘outclassed’ and ‘outworked’ after their 10-4 defeat to Swindon Wildcats on Saturday.
It was a mixed weekend for the Tigers who got an overtime victory on Friday night against the Sheffield Steeldogs securing a 4-3 victory in south Yorkshire.
But they were unable to back that up the following evening as they were thrashed by Swindon.
And Watkins said his side were ‘soft’ and showed a lack of ability to engage in the physical battle of the contest.
“We didn’t show up on Saturday we got outworked and outclassed,” he said. “The biggest disappointment was our lack of complete level, our inability or willingness to engage in battles physically. We looked soft, we weren’t prepared to play in the trenches, which was so different to Friday night’s performance against Sheffield.”
The game was only five minutes old when the home side took the lead with a goal from Dylan Lipsey. Then a minute later, Swindon doubled the lead with a shot from distance from Jake Bricknell that went in off the post. Swindon then had a glorious chance to increase the lead when Chris Jones was awarded a penalty shot but Brad Day stood tall and saved the Swindon forward’s effort.
Early in the second period, Telford got back in the game with a goal from James Smith but within a minute, the home side had doubled their lead with a cool finish from Josh Shaw. Swindon captain Sam Bullas then hit a fourth goal with a terrific shot into the top corner of the goal.
Telford fell apart and conceded two goals in quick succession with Bricknell completing his hat trick with both goals. The home side weren’t finished there and added a seventh goal through Tomas Malasinski to send a shell-shocked Tigers team back to the dressing room 7-1 down.
Swindon continued their absolute dominance with an eighth goal while Tigers gained a little respectability on the scoreboard with two goals in a minute midway through the third period. Swindon added two more as the clash finished 10-4.
The result was a huge shame after Vladimir Luka (two), Joe Aston and Rhodes Mitchell-King had guided the Tigers to a much-needed 4-3 win over the Steeldogs.
