Peterborough Phantoms’ skipper praises fans ahead of a must-win weekend

Ferrara issued a public thank-you in the wake of the city club’s 8-6 defeat at the hands of Telford last Sunday.

Phantoms trailed 6-0 after two periods, but Ferrara believes the positivity from the stands helped them to restore pride with a vastly improved showing in the final session.

Ferrara said: “We could hear them encouraging us as we came off the ice at the end of the first and second periods.

“There was nothing negative about any of the comments I heard. The drum was still beating at 6-0 down and the fans deserve a lot of credit for staying behind us.

“We have a lot of loyal and passionate people here who deserves to see good hockey games.

“They got that in the end in the third period, but it was hugely disappointing to find ourselves 6-0 down before that happened.

“It’s clear there are a lot of mistakes we need to eradicate from our game, but Telford are the league leaders for a reason.

“They have a lot of quality and compete every shift, but we showed what is possible in the third period when we matched them.

“Six goals in 18 minutes against the team sitting top of the league is certainly a positive we can take forward.”

Phantoms have two ideal opportunities to get back on track this weekend when facing struggling opponents.

They host second-bottom Raiders at Planet Ice tomorrow (January 11, 7pm) before going to third-bottom Bracknell on Sunday (5.30pm).

“It’s definitely an opportunity for a four-point weekend,” added Ferrara.

“They are two games we should probably win on paper, but we can’t take anything for granted.

“We have lost to Raiders and Bracknell recently and we have to ensure we perform for all three periods on both nights.

“Hopefully we can take some momentum from how we finished the game against Telford and we need to play as though the score is 0-0 at all times.

“It’s disappointing to have dropped down to fourth place and we have to find a way to get the results we need to push us back up to where we want to be.”

Phantoms will assess the condition of forward Gareth O’Flaherty ahead of the weekend.

He suffered a blow to the head in Basingstoke last Saturday and didn’t face Telford the following night.

Defenceman Scott Robson remains on the injured list with a knee problem.

Phantoms’ away clash with Leeds on January 17 will now be staged at Planet Ice with a 7pm face-off.