Milton Keynes Lightning have vowed to put lessons learned already this season into practice,  to try and ensure a smooth passage against local rivals Peterborough Phantoms when the two sides meet at the Thunderdome this weekend (Saturday 29 October, 7.00pm).

The two sides have already met this year, in pre-season ‘Ashes’ challenge matches where Lightning claimed an aggregate 7-4 win after seeing off the Phantoms at home but losing narrowly away on Peterborough’s ice.  The Lightning have also successfully seen off the threats posed by league champions Manchester Phoenix and last season’s EPL cup winners Slough Jets, and player-coach Nick Poole says the team intends to build on those successes as well as employing lessons learned.

“We say it often but  it’s true – it doesn’t matter what a team’s league position is, you can’t sit back and give them time and space to turn a struggle into a win.  A momentary lapse of focus in the away leg of the Ashes let them snatch a last minute goal to take the win, and that was disappointing even though we’d won so dominantly the previous evening.  That lesson came back to haunt us against Bracknell recently when we took our foot off the gas after building a 3-0 lead. 

“One of our targets this season is to win trophies –to do that, we need to stay focused right until the final buzzer so we’re all determined to put that into practice every game – and when Peterborough come to the Thunderdome, it’ll be no different.  We’ll apply the same focus to taking a win from that game as we would from facing any other team in the league – our supporters deserve nothing less”.

The Lightning go into this fixture on the back of a barnstorming double header against Basingstoke Biston, and hope to field a full-strength roster with the anticipated return from injury of forwards Juraj Gracik and Adam Brittle.  Meanwhile the Phantoms have confirmed since they last played MK that Shaun Yardley will miss the rest of this season with an injury picked up during the summer, and announced the release of Slovakian Forward Erik Bochna after only six games for the Phantoms, who currently lie ninth in the table.