Tom Watkins has demanded a reaction from his side as Telford Tigers look to recover from a demoralising set of defeats when they take on Manchester Phoenix and Peterborough Phantoms this weekend.

Last Sunday's loss to Peterborough, added to a similar result in Bracknell the night before, effectively spelled the end of Telford's lingering EPL play-off hopes, following a run of two successive home wins.

The Tigers boss will have the chance for immediate revenge on Sunday when he takes his side to Peterborough, although they must first make the trip to title-chasing Manchester on Saturday.

Watkins said: "We will approach the Manchester game like we do for most road trips. We will have a bit of a defensive mentality and hopefully try to take our chances on the break.

"They have got a good defence and their netminder has been playing well, so it is not an easy place to go. But we have had some good results against them this season."

Telford have, in fact, enjoyed some remarkably close games with Manchester this year, including a 2-1 victory at the start of the season.

But following that loss to Peterborough on Sunday, Watkins is aware he has a tough task on his hands. "I told the guys I wasn't happy after that game," Watkins added.

"They turned up in the third period, but had a mountain to climb. All credit, they did bring it back to 6-6, but we just couldn't hold onto that momentum.

We didn't play for the first 40 minutes, so we need to make sure we put in a full performance."

The trip to Peterborough will take the Tigers back to the scene of their last away win, when they emerged 5-4 winners from a feisty affair just after Christmas.

And the Telford player-coach is hoping another helping of points will cure his side's away-day blues. He added: "I think sometimes it is a little bit of a lack of focus during away games.

"I felt we played well enough to win in Bracknell last Saturday, but both goalies played very well.

"We have gone into away gams where we have competed very well in the first period, but mental errors have cost us dearly halfway through.

"Against Guildford, we outshot them, but still ended up losing 9-1. It is all about being gritty and determined. We need to be stubborn and hard to beat."

Saturday's clash at the Altincham Ice Dome starts at 7pm, while Sunday's match in Peterborough has a 5.30pm face-off.