Peterborough Phantoms face a crucial weekend of league and cup action

The city side travel to table-topping Swindon tomorrow (November 9, 6.15pm) before hosting struggling Raiders on Sunday (5.30pm) in the NIHL National Division.

Phantoms were brushed aside 5-0 in the previous visit to Wiltshire earlier in the season and are hopeful of a better outcome against the pace-setting Wildcats on this occasion.

“It’s always a challenge to face a team sitting top of the league,” said Ferrara, who is playing in the final season of his distinguished career.

“But they are the sort of tests we enjoy and that we have had a lot of success in them during previous years.

“We were very disappointed with the result at Swindon early in the season and hopefully we can put that right this time.”

And Ferrara also insists there is plenty of significance on Sunday’s home date against Raiders - for two reasons.

Not only are valuable NIHL National Division points up for grabs, the result also counts towards the standings for the NIHL National Cup competition.

Ferrara added; “The game against Raiders is doubly important as we want to get through to the semi-finals of the cup.

“We’re all saying the same thing about there being no easy weekends and this is another example of that being very true.

“We have to be at our best every time we hit the ice and even when being the better team there will be occasions - like last Sunday against Basingstoke - where the result doesn’t go our way.

“It’s such a tight league with very fine margins.”

The results of each club’s first home and away clashes against each other count towards the cup standings.

However, the English Ice Hockey Association is yet to update the standings even though the season has been running for two months!