Billingham Stars head into a two game weekend starting on Saturday night with a tough trip away to joint third placed Telford Titans. The Stars return to home ice action at Billingham`s TFM Ice Arena on Sunday night, when they take on bottom of the table side the Solihull Barons. (18:00).
Stars this week released forward Alex Lawson who has been linked to a move to local rivals the Whitley Warriors. Alex will join his brother net minder Ritchie as the Tynesider`s attempt to thwart Billingham`s run away league performance.
Saturday nights game should prove the tougher of the weekends encounters as Telford Titans have current league top scorer Karol Jets, the thirty year old Slovakian marksman has hit 20 goals and 22 assists in 20 outings to date this season.
Stars coach Stephen Foster admitsTelfordare not an easy prospect and has warned his team to be first out of the blocks
“We need to get into the game the minute the whistle blows; we can’t allow Telford the same space that we gaveBlackburnin our last away game”.
“If you allow a team to build a cushion against you, then you also allow them to spend the rest of the game defending that lead”.
Stars Head of coaching Terry Ward has noticed a change in Telford`s results.
“Telfordhave had some good results on the run up to Christmas and seem to have found a way to turn their season around”.
“They have a reputation for winding up opposition players and fans, and subsequently their penalty antics detract from their on ice performance”.
The Titans also are the leagues current bad boys with a total of 638 penalty minutes.
Telford Coach Paul Shuttleworth admits his team have paid a price for their high penalty count
“We are working on staying out of the penalty box, having five players on the ice is making a huge difference”.
“We have had a gap in our fixtures that has allowed us to recuperate, but we have trained hard this week for the Billingham visit”
Titans also recently strengthened their blue line with the signing of Chris Jones from Flintshire freeze.
Tomorrows visitors the Solihull Barons are currently propping up the table with 4 wins in 21 starts. But a flurry of recent new signings will mean that tomorrow nights visitors will bear little resemblance to the Barons that left Billingham on the wrong end of an 8 – 0 shut out in late October.
Barons were boosted by the return of last seasons ENL 2`s second top point and goal scorer Rob Eley. Darren Bellerby Solihull coach was also delighted to secure the services of former English Premier League forward Neil Adams and youngsters Tom Parker and Stuart Clayton.
Billingham visited Solihull in November and a strengthened Barons side secured a draw against the league leaders.
The Barons took both points last weekend when they beat fourth placed Trafford 5 – 4.
Stars Coach Terry ward does not write off Solihull chances of staying in ENL One.
“The Barons are a very tough team at home, their main problem is they can’t take their home form on the road, they don’t travel well, however some recent new signings could be the boost that they need to stay in our league”.
Sundays game against Solihull faces off at 18:30.
