Telford Tigers will have an eye on the end-of-season play-offs when they face Manchester Phoenix and Sheffield Steeldogs this weekend.
The county men finally slipped out of EPL title contention last week, despite enjoying a 7-2 over high-flying Guildford Flames on Sunday.
Focus is now likely to be on building momentum ahead of the eight-team tournament – Telford’s final chance of silverware this season.
Head coach Tom Watkins has backed his men to make the most of this weekend’s games, as part of that preparation.
He said: “It’s been our goal for a while, so there’s not really a switch in focus. We’ve been playing hard since Christmas and playing well in most games.
“We haven’t dropped many games in that time. I have been disappointed with how we’ve played against teams effectively above us, where we didn’t pick up enough points.
“We also dropped points against Sheffield when they played us here last time, so we know our focus. There’s under a month to go and I’ve said before that if guys don’t know their tasks now, they shouldn’t be here.”
Saturday sees Telford make the trip to Deeside to face Manchester Phoenix, while on Sunday, Sheffield travel to Shropshire for the last time this season.
Watkins added: “It is a tight league and both teams have got some quality players. If you look at Manchester, Kovar is second in the scoring, and Bosas in Sheffield is first.
“They’ve got good offense and Sheffield’s Brits are walk-ons, so both teams can beat anyone at any point. We tried very hard to sign Mark Thomas in the summer, which shows the calibre of player Manchester have.
“Everyone in this league now has got good players. So you have to be organised, disciplined and sacrifice something for the team. That is perhaps where we have come unstuck a little bit.”
Telford’s injury list has again been brought into focus, with a string of high-profile players likely to be missing this weekend.
But Watkins will demand a hard-nosed approach in the treatment room over coming weeks, as the season reaches its climax.
“There’s four weeks to go, so players have to come back and they have to play hurt, within reason of course,” he said.
“I won’t chuck a guy out who’s going to hurt the team by underperforming. I’m not being mean, but it doesn’t matter to me if they’re hurt and I just need to know if they’re capable of playing.
“Guys know that and I spoke to Phil Hill this week. He told me if he’s able, he’ll go, as he doesn’t want to be missing at this time of the year. He said there’s plenty of time in the summer to rest and that’s the attitude we need out of everybody.”
Sunday’s game with Sheffield Steeldogs, at Telford Ice Rink, faces off at 6pm.
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