Peterborough Phantoms coach angry as Bracknell Bees’ approach causes injury again

The city club have been left with three players injured after games against the Bees this season.

Defenceman Scott Robson has been out since suffering knee damage in a November 2 clash between the sides in Berkshire.

Forward Glenn Billing was left with a fractured finger from a slash when the Bees won at Planet Ice on November.

Martins Susters was also hurt by a slash in that game for which Bracknell defenceman Joe Baird was later punished through video evidence.

And Susters was again targeted by the Bees last Saturday night when slashed by Brendan Baird – brother of Joe – in the second period of Phantoms’ 5-1 victory. Baird was thrown out on a game penalty.

Koulikov said: “It’s always a concern about injuries when playing against Bracknell.

“We had ‘Robbo’ hurt in Bracknell and he hasn’t played since; then we had Martins and ‘Glenny’ injured by them in the last game in our rink, and now Martins has been slashed again.

“Last time we sent in the video of the incident with Martins and the Bracknell player got a ban.

“We will have a look to see if anything happened on Saturday needs to be reviewed again.

“It’s good that we can now make sure of the technology and over time it will hopefully mean that teams learn they can’t get away with this sort of thing, but the review process doesn’t help me or the players who have been injured.

“The coach of a team is always responsible for the way his players conduct themselves as far as I’m concerned.”

Bracknell chief Doug Sheppard and a number of his players – including both Baird brothers - were also hit with bans last season after ugly scenes following the second leg of their NIHL South Cup semi-final defeat to Phantoms.