Owen Dell leading the way as Leeds Knights 2 look to tame Telford Tigers 2
OWEN DELL has been a key part of the Leeds Knights 2 attack so far this season, leading the stats with six goals and five assists from their eight games so far.
But head coach, Davey Lawrence is demanding more from the forward ahead of a tough NIHL North One game at an in-form Telford Tigers 2 today.
“Owen has had a good start in terms of points,” said Lawrence. “But that's probably the one stat I tend not to pay too much attention to.
“It's nice to have guys scoring and assisting, but for me, it's more about the performance side of it.
“Owen is somewhat of a veteran in the league I guess, but there's still a bit to his game he can improve on. We're still working on that and hopefully that'll start to show itself over these next few weeks.”
Lawrence is wary of the challenge presented by a newly-promoted in the shape of hosts’ Telford and says a good start is crucial.
“Their rink's probably a little bit more suited to us in terms of size,” he added. “It's a little bit smaller, very similar to ours. We have to go in there and get off to a good start.
“We have to take it one period at a time and see where we are after 50 minutes. If we're right in it, then it's a 10-minute game to see who can pip it.
“There's definitely a way that we can play against them because they're very offensive. So we need to make sure we're showing up at the back and trying to play a little bit more offence ourselves so that they're not.”
The Knights go into the game off the back of a weekend where they became the first side to beat Deeside Dragons this season, winning 4-3 at home on Saturday before losing 14-2 in Deeside on Sunday.
Lawrence brandished the defeat “unacceptable” and is demanding more fight from his players.
“It's frustrating that we can play a game like we did on Saturday and then turn in what we turned in on Sunday and not really show any fight to try and stay in that game at all,” he added.
“It’s a reality check. I spoke to the players a little bit about having a look in the mirror and assessing themselves to see what they can bring to be better because what happened in Deeside was just not acceptable.”