Leeds Chiefs playing catch-up in order to live with NIHL National rivals

British ice hockey’s latest franchise may have began life with a 3-1 defeat at the hands of new Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Steeldogs, but they won plenty of plaudits for their performance – not least from the 400 or so fans who made the short trip down to Ice Sheffield on Sunday evening.

This week, the Chiefs continue their debut season with another road trip, heading to Shropshire to take on Telford Tigers.

Eight more road trips await while work is completed on the new Elland Road rink, with their first home game scheduled to take place on November 3 against the Steeldogs.

Despite Sunday’s loss, Boothroyd is confident it won’t be too long before the Chiefs are celebrating their first win, as long as they build on their impressive first outing.

“It was quite a short preparation for Sunday’s game,” said Boothroyd.

“But it showed that, even at this stage, we’re not that far off the mark in terms of where we need to be and we will only get better with each passing week.

“We know that we are there or thereabouts with regard to our compete level – the effort was there, we just need a bit more preparation to get up to speed on a few things going into Telford.

“We need to take the positives and know that we are only going to get better. We showed on Sunday that we are capable of mixing it with one of the better teams in the league, a team who have had plenty of success in recent years.”

“Our opponents will know that they are going to be facing an even better team the longer we are playing and training together than the week before.”