Leeds Knights 2 v Blackburn Hawks: Davey Lawrence looking for Knights to make home 'statement'
Davey Lawrence is looking for his Leeds Knights 2 team to “make a statement” on home ice when they take on Blackburn Hawks on Saturday.
It has been a tough start to the 2025-26 NIHL North one campaign for head coach Lawrence and his team, winning just one of their five games so far.
But in last Sunday’s 7-4 defeat at reigning league, cup and play-off champions Billingham Stars, Lawrence saw grounds for optimism moving forward.
Against a team who dominated them throughout last season, the Knights were trailing by just one goal going into the last four minutes before the Stars hit them with two strikes in the space of a few seconds.
It made for a tough 48 hours for the Knights having already lost 5-2 at Hull Jets the previous day.
The Hawks have already got the better of Leeds this season, winning a keenly-fought contest in Blackburn 3-1 on the opening night of the season, but it was another performance that pleased Lawrence.
“We weren’t a million miles away, the overall performance was good - could have been better in areas - but it was good,” said Lawrence.
“But they’re a really strong team and they’ve got a lot of experience this time around. It’s another tough one, we’ve been given a bit of a tough start this first couple of months, but we have to look at taking points from these teams.
“Coming to our place, we’ve got to try and make a statement. I think if we play the way we know we can play, we know we can push most teams in this league - we’ve just got to find a way of getting over the line.”
To get “over the line” Lawrence will hope his players have learned from the mistakes which proved costly across both games last weekend.
“Saturday we just weren’t at the races,” he added. “We played in a way that we don’t usually play, and did a lot of things we try not to do and shouldn’t be doing.
“On Sunday, against Billingham, we were much better, we kept it tight and we were only trailing 5-4 with three or four minutes to go, but then we had a bit of a defensive meltdown and they scored two late goals to make it 7-4.
“Performance-wise, Sunday was much better than Saturday but we still need to figure out a way to close out these games.”