Milton Keynes Lightning welcome Telford Tigers to the Thunderdome this Saturday with player-coach Nick Poole optimistic about his side’s chances of victory over Tom Watkins’ strugglers, and keeping Lightning’s silverware aspirations on target (Saturday 7 January, Planet Ice Arena, 7.00pm face off).

In their first game after an 11 day Christmas break, the Lightning fell to a 4-1 home defeat to Manchester Phoenix, former Elite league man Martin Cingel scooping his second consecutive hat-trick against Poole’s men, but they immediately moved to put things right with a dominant 6-2 away victory over league leaders Guildford, on New Year’s Day, and a 2-1 away defeat of Swindon Wildcats 24 hours later.

The Lightning climbed to second place after last weekend’s fixtures in an English Premier League which has been unpredictable to say the least this season - still in strong contention for a place in the EPL play-offs, a berth in the Cup semi-finals secured before Christmas, and the league title still within reach.  Defenceman Ross Green returned after the seasonal break from Team GB U20 duty,  and forward Grant McPherson returned after missing eight games with a shoulder injury.

On Boxing Day, the Tigers kept league leaders Guildford Flames on a tight rein at The Spectrum, and took a deserved point after losing only when the game was decided in overtime. The following day in Cambridgeshire, the Shropshire side took both points with a penalty shoot-out victory over Peterborough Phantoms, but they remain rooted to the bottom of the English Premier League.

Nick Poole said Lightning’s defeat against Manchester had given them a renewed focus for the challenges ahead.  “We know that loss disappointed the fans, but it hurt all of us even more, so our wins against the Flames and Wildcats were very satisfying.

“The result against Manchester gave us a wake-up call – we learned the lessons from it and put the disappointment behind us, and we showed that in the following two away games.  We didn’t let going a goal down in the first periods play on our minds – we pushed on and won them well, particularly so at Guildford.  Telford showed when they played the Flames that they can mix it with anyone in this league, so beating them is definitely not a given – but we’ll be giving it 100 per cent from the first face-off to the last buzzer to make sure we get the two points.”

Face-off against Telford this Saturday is at 7.00pm at the Planet Ice Arena.