Leeds Knights: Matt Haywood on his 'pride' in the team around him as they bid for double repeat show

The 33-year-old centre has known nothing but success since heading ‘home’ to Yorkshire in the summer of 2022.

The first campaign for the Doncaster-born forward ended with an NIHL National league and play-off double. If he has his way, it will be the same again this season.

The Knights already have the regular season title in the bag, sealing the deal with four games to spare, eventually finishing nine points clear of their closest rival.

And given the way they twice swept aside Yorkshire rivals Hull Seahawks on the opening weekend of the post-season, the signs for a second straight play-off trophy already look good.

There is a reason Haywood is so highly-regarded in the Knights locker room and it’s not just about his ability to contribute to the scoring on a regular basis - for the record, 93 points in 58 league, cup and play-off games so far this season.

Haywood arrived in Leeds having spent 11 seasons in the Elite League at Glasgow Clan. As a result, he leads by example and has proved a natural leader for what is, once again, a relatively young Knights team.

Last week when things got heated towards the end of their clash in Hull, it was Haywood – alongside head coach Ryan Aldridge – who could be visibly seen rallying those around him, keeping it calm, helping them through to the final buzzer.

He clearly cares, he knows what it takes to win and, as he said ahead of this weekend’s back-to-back games against Peterborough Phantoms, he is proud of those players around him - young and old.

“I’m proud of the lads because play-off hockey is different, a lot more intense and I’m proud that our group was able to step it up a notch (last weekend),” said Haywood. “Hopefully we can do that throughout the rest of this group stage.”

Earlier in the season, Hull beat Leeds over two legs in the NIHL National Cup semi-final - the only time the Knights lost back-to-back games all through the regular season.

When it came to another double-header with the same opponents last weekend, Leeds had clearly learned their lesson.

“Hull fully deserved that Cup win, but I feel it was a good learning curve for our boys,” added Haywood.

“They taught us how to play back-to-back games that weekend and I’m really proud of the boys for using that experience and learning from it when it came to last weekend.

“Hopefully, moving forward now, we can look to our next games and try to do the same this weekend.”

Haywood says Leeds have put themselves into a position where they can pursue a double for a second season running thanks, in large part, to their adaptability.

A significant overhaul of the roster last summer, including the unexpected departure of Cole Shudra to Sheffield Steelers, saw many cast doubt on the Knights’ ability to repeat their 2022-23 heroics.

So far, they have proved those doubters wrong.

“There had been a lot of changes to the roster and then we lost a very big part of our teams in terms of Cole later on in the summer,” added Haywood.

“But what we’ve been is very adaptable this year, a couple of guys have stepped up on those top two lines and Fin (Bradon) and Oli (Endicott) have also done a really good job when we’ve needed them to on that top six.

“As a unit we were probably a bit over-reliant on our firepower last year but we quickly realised that we had lost a little bit of that.

“But we’ve got a great D-core and a great goalie and we’ve not conceded too many goals this year which as a team is something we’re very proud of.

“We’re a good, well-balanced side and that is something that we take great pride in being.”