Campbell waiting to be impressed by rivals

Hull head into this weekend’s league trip to Sheffield Steelers, with only three points from a possible 12 and having started the campaign with five straight losses.

Those defeats all came against opponents regarded as being among the most likely to challenge for league honours come the end of the season and, on most occasions, Hull proved a good match until third period mistakes proved too costly to come back from.

A first win of the season - albeit on a shoot-out - against league newcomers Fife Flyers was harder work than anticipated but 31-year-old winger Campbell, a regular season title winner with both Sheffield Steelers and Coventry Blaze, has seen enough since switching to Hull in the summer to make him believe player-coach Sylvain Cloutier has a side that can compete with the league’s front-runners.

“We didn’t really get the start that we wanted,” said Campbell, who initially contemplated ending his playing days following last year’s regular season success with the Steelers before opting for at least one more season out on the ice.

“We have got a good group of guys here, we’re a pretty solid team and Clouts has done a real good job and done well in bringing in guys who he knows can do the job.

“There’s no danger of anyone in the room getting too far ahead of themselves either, if that were to happen there are plenty of us who will be quick to bring them back down to earth again.

“Every guy has to be accountable and we’ve got to make sure we minimise our mistakes and rectify the problems that we are guilty of because good teams do that.”

With a visit from Nottingham Panthers to Hull Arena on Sunday night (face-off 6pm) following Saturday’s Yorkshire derby, Campbell acknowledges that Hull have a perfect opportunity to give their more-fancied rivals a jolt.

“Every time we’ve played against a top team we’ve always been in the game for 50 minutes or so,” added Campbell.

“I think anyone watching will have seen that we have competed with every top team and to be honest I haven’t been blown away by any of them, apart from, perhaps, Belfast in the very first game but it’s always hard going over there.

“I wasn’t greatly impressed by Nottingham, Sheffield, Cardiff or Coventry to be honest and they are certainly not out of our reach. I like our team and what we’ve got in the room, but we just to need to play to our strengths and cut out the mistakes.”

Jack Watkins returns for Stingrays in Sheffield after recovering from the hairline fracture of his collarbone that he suffered in a pre-season game against Coventry. Ryan Lake, however, is a long-term absentee following recent surgery on a back injury.

Cloutier, looking for his team to up their performance following last week’s laboured victory over Fife, said he was pleased to have 18-year-old Watkins back among his ranks.

“Jack was impressive in pre-season on a line with Campbell and Silverthorn so it was shame that he got injured,” said Cloutier.

“He’s a smart player and we’ve got a few good, young British players like him.

“We need to give them a chance at this level, be patient and make sure they stick around because over the next few years they are going to help grow this club.

“It’s going to be another tough weekend for us, we’re playing two good teams - we just have to make life hard for them.”

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