Phantoms can challengefor trophies says Padelek

The city team sit fourth in the English Premier League standings and have advanced to the semi-finals of the EPL Cup.

The Czech forward believes their exploits have already taken plenty of people by surprise – and he is confident he and his team-mates can continue to impress for the remainder of the campaign.

“I don’t think too many people expected us to be in such a good position at this stage of the season,” said Padelek.

“I read in the summer that people didn’t think we had a good roster.

“They were saying that we lost some important players and replaced them with younger lads, but those guys have been getting lots of ice time and playing well.

“They have brought a lot of energy to the team, which is something we needed, and have been helping us to win games.

“We are managing to keep ourselves in the top half of the table and that is where we want to be.

“I’m not going to say that we can win the league, but we are in the semi-finals of the cup and then there are the play-offs. If we can keep playing in this way, I don’t see why we can’t maybe try to win some trophies.

“Everyone here wants to do that and we will do everything we can to try to make it happen.”

Padelek was Phantoms’ two-goal hero as they mounted a terrific third-period turnaround to sink table-topping Telford last Sunday. It was a success which completed a full set of home victories against the Tigers this season.

And more tough games quickly follow with home and away clashes against second-placed Milton Keynes on Boxing Day (away, 6pm) and December 27 (home, 5.30pm).

Padelek added: “We played well even when behind. It was just a case of needing to get a goal and we did that very early in the final period.

“Once we got level, I felt we would go on to win the game and it was good to be able to score a couple of goals.

“We have two more hard games coming up against MK, but we will give our all and try to get results.”