Manchester Storm head coach Cameron Critchlow says this Saturday’s trip to Nottingham to face the Panthers comes with added difficulty.

Storm will face Danny Stewart’s side for the second straight Saturday after a convincing 5-1 success at the Storm Shelter in the weekend just passed.

But Critchlow is already on high alert as he prepares to do battle with them again while also hoping for another trip to Nottingham later in the season.

⁠”It’s never easy beating teams when you play them in consecutive weeks,” he said.

“After taking those points from them, they’ll be coming in, riding high after their Challenge Cup semi-final win.

It’s important for us to rely on our speed and getting to the good areas inside the dots if we are to take victory again.

The expectation is to make play-offs every year and the team has worked hard to put ourselves in the position we’re in.

We have a lot of hockey left and want to put ourselves in the best position possible moving into the play-offs and do our best to be playing at the final weekend in Nottingham.”

Storm took three points at the weekend to put them in a position where a top eight berth could be clinched over the coming days.

But Critch was also delighted at another aspect of the team’s output as he reflected on the last two games.

“I thought we competed hard both games,” he added.

“Special team played a huge factor in the game against Nottingham, which helped to get us across the line. I though Sunday was a good back and forth battle where we relied on our physicality.

It’s great to have many guys contributing. We had a few guys score some big goals that haven’t been on the score sheet for a few weeks which is a huge boost to us as a group”.

By: Craig Anderson