Phantoms captain not worried aboutthe home defeats

Callum Buglass in action against Sheffield Steeldogs. Picture: Tom Scott

The city team have slipped to successive defeats in front of their own fans with a 3-2 overtime reverse at the hands of Raiders in their NIHL Division One South opener on September 22 being followed by a 2-1 loss to Sheffield in an NIHL Autumn Cup clash last Saturday.

Phantoms have also failed to find the net in the opening two periods of all three competitive home games so far, but Ferrarainsists performances have been better than results and statistics might suggest.

He said: “We deserved to win at home against Sheffield last Saturday. I felt we were the better team and the scoreline didn’t reflect the possession and the chances we had.

“We also outplayed London for two of the three periods the previous weekend as well and were unfortunate again there as a couple of refereeing decisions went against us.

“The fact we have managed goals in the third period could be seen as a positive. It shows our fitness levels are there, but it would obviously be nice to score earlier than that because the longer it takes to score the more confident the opposition netminder gets.

“We probably haven’t got the amount of dangerous forwards we’ve had in previous years, but we do have good goalscorers and it’s about putting more of our chances away.

“The fact we’re conceding so few goals at the other end is a major positive. Our netminder, Jordan Marr, has settled in very quickly and has been delivering stellar performances.

Phantoms have responded to those aforementioned disappointments with victories on the road the following night in both the league and NIHL Autumn Cup.

The latter competition is the focus again this weekend with home (Saturday, 7pm) and away (Sunday, 5.30pm) clashes against Hull.

One victory will assure Phantoms of a semi-final berth with Basingstoke needing home and away wins against Telford to stand a chance of catching the city side.

“We’re confident of going through,” added Ferrara. “Two points will make it certain but we’re aiming for four just as we do every weekend.

“Winning at home makes the job a lot easier and we owe our fans a win on Saturday night. We want to try to make our rink a fortress.”