The vastly experienced 65 year-old coach arrived in the UK this week from Canada with the task of building on the success of his highly-rated predecessor Phil David at the Peterborough Arena.

Fellow countryman David won the KO Cup during his season-long tenure at the club and Patterson has every intention of putting more silverware into the Bretton trophy cabinet.

And while it is still early days after just one training session and a friendly with Nottingham Panthers to gauge resources, the globe trotting former Kootenay Ice boss revealed failure will not be tolerated and the axe will be swung if needed.

Patterson said: “First thing I would like to say is that after coaching in Japan and Holland, it is great to be given the chance to take over a team in England. It is a challenge I am really looking forward to.

“Obviously last season under Phil the team had a good year and the feeling of the club management and myself during the close season was that we didn’t want to mess around with a winning formula here at Phantoms.

“To that end most of the personnel we had here last season are back and I hope that we can go on together and achieve more success for the fans.

“That will take an awful lot of hard work but that is the very least I expect from my teams.

“I will be giving it my all in the role of coach and I expect every single player at this club to do the same.

“I would not say I am dictatorial but I do think that hard work and good discipline in a hockey team are key to success and that is what I want us to have here.

“So while we have kept most of last season’s faces, I am fully prepared to make changes to the roster if we are not where I want us to be at various points in the season, we will just have to see.”

And in order to achieve that success, Patterson has identified one key area in which he feels improvement is needed.

“Looking at what happened here last season I feel that defensively towards the end of the season we were not as strong as we needed to be and that really cost us in the end when we missed the playoffs.

“So we will be working hard on those areas which will improve that side of our game.”

Patterson and assistant Tim Peacock are expected to nominate their captain for the coming season before the English Premier League season starts on September 27.

Phantoms’ pre season continues tonight with the visit of the Chelmsford Chieftains to the Peterborough Arena (face off 6:30pm).

n Every fan who attends the match against Chelmsford tonight will get a Lite FM flag that also doubles as free entry to Peterborough Greyhound Stadium for a family of four and a meal there for 1p throughout September.