Hull Seahawks coach Matty Davies welcomes return to midweek 'routine'

Three out of the last four weeks have seen the East Yorkshire team play midweek games.

But, following their 5-4 home win over Solway Sharks on Sunday - courtesy of two goals apiece from Emil Svec and Owen Sobchak and a marker from the returning Lee Bonner - Davies’s team can get back into practice mode ahead of this Saturday’s visit from Raiders.

For Davies, whose team lost out 5-2 at NIHL National Cup Final opponents Milton Keynes Lightning on Saturday, the return to some kind of normality for his players is warmly welcomed.

“It’s another massive weekend for us - we need a good week this week and it will be good getting the lads back on the ice,” said Davies, who takes his team to Peterborough Phantoms on Sunday, their Cambridgeshire rivals sitting just two points behind them in the standings.

“We’ve had a tough couple of weeks in terms of it being broken up because of midweek games and we haven’t really practiced for 2-3 weeks now.

“So we do need to get back to a bit of routine and work on our game a little bit.

“Sunday in Peterborough is huge obviously. That’s a four-point game for us and we haven’t played them for a while, especially at their place.”

Although the Seahawks have found it tough to return to the kind of form that produced a 10-game winning streak through January into early February, Davies is pleased with his team’s efforts, particularly with a number of key players being sidelined through injury or suspension.

Lee Bonner (suspension) and Thomas Stubley (injury) both returned on Sunday, as did Bobby Chamberlain who continues to nurse an ongoing upper-body injury.

“We can have a good week (of practice) and be confident that we’ve played really well recently, even these losses we’ve had against Leeds and MK - they have not been losses in terms of bad performances, it’s just a case of they’ve not quite gone for us on the night and being short on bodies, it is always hard.

“The lads have been playing short for quite a while. Bones (Bonner) and Stubs (Stubley) were understandably rusty.

“But Stubs was solid and we’ve missed him a lot. We need to get him back fit and being comfortable out there and strong and that will come, it’s just a matter of time.

“Bones is the same, he’s one that he needs to be on the ice and when he’s off the ice you can tell a little bit

“And his timing was off a little bit but he scored and still got into some good areas but we’ll see the best of Lee in a couple of weeks.

“It was just great to have those three lads back, they are a big part of this team and we need them.”