TONY Milton has set his sights on the cup play-offs, believing that Slough Jets have overcome their problems this season.
The Jets struggled for match fitness and form due to a delay in the arrival of a temporary rink but, now back on the ice, they have grown in confidence.
Slough beat London Haringey Racers 15-4 on Saturday with goals from Luke Martin-Digby (4), Nathan Darmanin (3), Charlie Dobbins (2), Jamie Joyce (2), Timo Lindgren (2), Matt Webb, Kirk Evans and Chris Hocquigny.
Though still bottom of the South Two East league table, The Jets are level on points with Lee Valley Lions and Milton believes his team are now capable of challenging the best.
“We’ve been on the end of bad scorelines because we had no ice,” Slough’s head coach told the Observer. “We were coming up against fully-fit teams and got hammered.
“Every team has their problems and we’re through ours now. You take the score, that’s the only thing that goes on record.
“We’re getting training sessions in and fitness is growing. We’ve not done anything to think we will win something but we’re not challenging.
“The difference was we had no ice to keep the players fit. We relied on the guys and some don’t push themselves. We can now get that little bit extra out of them, go over our objectives and the systems we want to play.”
Milton continued: “My personal target is not to come last in the league. We’re still in the cup as well and that’s a one-off game where anything can happen. If we beat the Isle of Wight we’re in the play-offs in Cardiff and that’s down to the luck of the devil.”
He added: "We've lost two players to dislocated shoulders in the last two weeks which is not good, but we're trying to put a show on.
"We've got some injuries that are concerning me a little but if we can get the guys fit an available then we can beat anyone. We proved that when we beat Chelmsford.
"We're carrying some injuries and some had to be taken out of training."
Looking back on the win against London Haringey, Milton said: "It was a great result but I'm not taking it out of context.
"There netminder got injured in the first period and half-way through the game pulled himself from the ice.
"An outfield player had to go in goal though we were the better team on the night and would have won the game anyway, but not by as big a margin if they had a full team."
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