Peterborough Phantoms aim to to reach Christmas on a high

A depleted Phantoms side lost 2-1 at struggling Bees last weekend to slip to eighth in a nine-team league. The city side host Bees on Sunday (December 19, 5.30pm) in their last match before Christmas.

Phantoms coach Slava Koulikov said: “Our last trip to Sheffield was a tough one and one we want to put right this time. They’re a good team as we all know, with lots of firepower and they added a good group of players from Hull to their Sheffield core in the summer, so we know they’ll be rolling their forward lines because all of them are capable of scoring.

“They’ve changed their style from how they used to play. Previously, they’d get the puck deep and go to the dirty areas to win it and create chances from there, but now their forwards are all looking to create chances as they advance forward and their defence try to activate into the play. This means we have to play a responsible game and everyone needs to make sure they’re doing their job on both sides of the puck.

“Sunday will be another interesting one, the game in Slough last week against the Bees was a tough one to analyse because we had a lot of players out, but hopefully we can get a few of them back for this week and put on a good performance for our fans in our last home game before Christmas.”