Leeds Knights Sam Gospel on being the hunter and the hunted in NIHL National
FOR THE past three and a half years, Leeds Knights have been the hunted.
This season, they are among the hunters at the top end of the NIHL National.
Tonight - in the first of their 16 remaining games - presents them with a last-chance-saloon scenario when they head to leaders Swindon Wildcats.
The Knights - chasing a fourth straight regular season crown - currently sit third in the standings, 13 points adrift of Swindon and with a game in hand.
In between lie Sheffield Steeldogs, six points ahead of the Knights but having played three games more.
Understandably to an extent, some will have already written off Leeds’ chances of overhauling the sizable deficit.
Last weekend didn’t help, the Knights taking only two points from their double-header against Milton Keynes Lightning, while Swindon posted a four-point return with wins over Basingstoke Bison and Hull Seahawks.
Including tonight, Leeds still have to face-off against Swindon three times, with an Elland Road clash scheduled for next Friday and a third and final encounter in Wiltshire on March 7.
Swindon also have to face the Steeldogs twice more, although the second of those meetings doesn’t come until the last weekend of the regular season, by which point the Wildcats may have enough points in the bank for the result of that game to be immaterial.
It’s a tall order definitely, but one the Knights have not given up on, according to netminder Sam Gospel, who knows all about the pressure of being the hunted.
“It’s not easy being chased,” said the 31-year-old, who has back-stopped the Knights to a National Cup and play-off crown in addition to three league titles.
“We’ve been in that fortunate position where we’ve been the team being chased for the past three years and that’s probably the hardest thing to do because every single night you have to be the best version of yourself - with no mistakes.
“And all the teams you are playing against when you’re in first just try that bit harder against you because they want to take you down more than other teams.
“And that’s not easy to keep going through when you’re at the top and, over the past three years, we know what it takes to get through that situation.
“All we can do is back ourselves, keep winning our games and hope that some other teams might steal some points (off Swindon) or they might drop a couple here and there and then it is game on.
“That then creates pressure on the team at the top and we’ve been under that pressure multiple times.
“Over the past three years, we’ve dropped games we maybe thought we shouldn’t have over - but it is hard, dealing with that sometimes, when teams are right on your heels, it is difficult to keep that mentality going, really.
“So, all we can do is just take care of our business as best we can and concentrate on ourselves.”