HE'S been in the country for less than a month but that hasn't stopped Colin Patterson adding to the Bretton trophy cabinet as his team brought the Ashes to a successful conclusion at the Peterborough Arena last night.

Goals from Craig Peacock, Nathan Rempel and Brent Gough saw Phantoms overturn s 4-2 reverse from the away leg on Saturday to claim their first silverware of the season after this high-octane double header against fellow EPL hopefuls Milton Keynes Lightning.

Despite the absence of injured skipper Lewis Buckman, who has two fractured fingers, and youngster Callum Fowler (knee), Patterson's patched-up side produced a performance of controlled aggression against their bitter rivals to win back the Ashes trophy after it's inauguration 12 months ago.

And while in the grand scheme of things these pre-season scraps with MK are little more than beefed-up friendlies, a solid performance against one of the stronger sides in the English Premier League was enough to convince Patterson his team are ready for the league opener at Slough next Saturday.

"We played with a lot more passion and really stood up for each other out there," said Patterson with reference to the spiky nature of this bruising derby.

"The guys went out and put on a real battling team performance which was always the most important thing.

"Of course it is nice to win something, especially against Milton Keynes as it means a lot to our fans, but for me it was all about taking that final step towards being ready for the competitive season.

"And one of the most pleasing things for me tonight in that respect was the way we played in the powerplays that we had.

"It is something we have been working on and we saw the results with a couple of goals which was very pleasing.

"Against the better teams we really need to be able to make the extra numbers count when we get the chance and against Lightning we did that. They were really up for both games and we had to take our chances.

"The intensity of both games will also have helped as it is hard to simulate league hockey in a warm-up. Both games had that intensity which should help us when things get going against Slough next Saturday."

And for that reason alone Patterson clearly didn't share the view held by some seasoned Phantoms watchers who doubted the wisdom in playing so many warm-up games this summer.