Hull Seahawks urged to put everything on the line in bid to keep NIHL National season alive

Tonight brings a trip to Slough, the Bees home, before Hull play host tomorrow.

But Seahawks’ head coach Matty Davies insists the sole focus for his players – well-beaten twice by Leeds Knights on the opening weekend of the post-season – is only on what is immediately in front of them.

Lose tonight and it will make for a very solemn trip home back up the M1, with Davies and his players contemplating what will probably be the end of their play-off hopes.

There is a lot of pressure on tonight’s game, but Davies is confident his players have what it takes to deal with what is coming their way.

“We need to stay composed, not get carried away too early and not try to play a run-and-gun game against a team like that, we just need to be smart,” said Davies, who is expecting to have to make a game-day decision on centre Nathan Salem who is in a race against time to recover from an upper-body injury in last Friday’s 8-3 defeat at Leeds.

“We need a reaction to last week. We know what we’ve got to do - win games - and if we can’t beat the Bees then we don’t deserve to get to Coventry.

“It is in that room, we can beat them, obviously. The pressure is on a little bit but the lads have just got to play free and do their jobs - the rest will take care of itself.”

Both teams head into tonight’s encounter looking for their first win of this year’s play-offs, the Bees coming undone twice against Peterborough Phantoms last weekend.

In the regular season, the Seahawks won the five-game head-to-head series 3-2 but, as is always the case when the post-season kicks in, that will count for little this weekend.

As well as sweating over the fitness of experienced Salem, Davies is also without his two youngest forwards, Owen Bruton and Ehys Edwards, who are away on international duty with Great Britain Under-18s.

They return in time for the Final Four Weekend in Coventry, where they will hope to play a part in their team’s bid for a first-ever trophy.

Davies added: “We’ve got four games to make it to Coventry - the lads are going to have to put it in.”