Telford Tigers will be told to prepare for an "intense" festive period when they make the trip to Guildford Flames on Boxing Day, before a clash with Peterborough Phantoms just 24 hours later.

Player-coach Tom Watkins returns to the Tigers line-up for the first time since early December, alongside a number of other players who were in Germany on GB under-20s duty.

A full-strength Telford squad will be looking to make up for a disappointing run of four heavy defeats this month, with EPL leaders Guildford set to provide a stiff challenge on Boxing Day.

Watkins said: "It will be good for the players to have familiar faces alongside them and hopefully that will give them the impetus to play hard. If they do that, I can't ask any more of them.

"It is when they don't play hard that I get frustrated and the fans start to get frustrated, but I will be asking them to be intense and play well."

The trip to Peterborough on Tuesday will be a chance for Telford to gain revenge for their 5-3 defeat to the Phantoms last weekend, after they led 3-2 at the start of the third period.

"We have got to get ourselves going for every game," Watkins added.

"Two points against the teams around us will be worth a little bit more and the guys have to be ready. We will have a full roster, so we need to go down and play hard."

The disappointment of last weekend will no doubt be lifted by victory in either game, and Watkins had a vote of thanks for those players from Coventry and Flintshire who stepped up from ENL duty.

He said: "The guys who were here were up against it and we had a lot of new players. It was very hard for them to make the step up and play straight away, so I am very pleased with their attitude.

"It was really good of them to come over."

The Boxing Day game against Guildford starts at 4pm, while the match at Peterborough on the 27th faces off at 7.45pm.

Any fan travelling to Guildford, the coach departs from the Park Inn, Telford at 10:30am.