Widnes Wild are in top three of the league after one win and one loss from a tough weekend against two of the top four teams.
With only a handful of games remaining, the race is on to claim the title and teams are looking towards the play-offs.
Coach’s View
It seems unlikely Wild will finish above third in their debut season in Division One.
Widnes Player/Coach Richard Haggar said: “Third in our first season is going to be our main aim now going forward.
“So we’re going to do everything we possibly can to try and achieve that and make sure we pick up the results we need to get to third by the end of the season.”
Leaders Solway Sharks are on 41 points and second placed Whitley on 36 points, 13 above Widnes in third.
Widnes Quadruple Over Solihull?
Haggar’s side next face Solihull Barons for the final time this season. They haven’t lost to the Birmingham based team so far in the league.
The two sides also faced each other over the weekend with Widnes coming out 6-2 victors.
Haggar said: “Obviously, we’d love to stay undefeated against Solihull they’re a very good team though, so we’ve got to make sure that we are prepared, that we’re ready and we turn up on Sunday to try and get the result that we want to help us finish in that third place.”
Strong Framework in Place
Latvian Vlads Vulkanov, the league’s current top scorer with 26, has been key to Wild’s success.
Haggar himself is up there in the statistics being the second highest for assists in the league (30).
Alongside players like Liam Charnock and goalie Harrison Walker, the side has a strong framework in place for next season.
Charnock scored twice against the Barons the last time they played, with Haggar and Vulkanov adding one each to their tallies.
Vlads was one of two goalscorers when the Wild faced Whitley Warriors on Sunday with Danny Haid grabbing the other.
Looking onto next season the club will be counting on these players to push for more titles and a higher finish in the table.
Haggar said: “I think we’ve got a very good foundation this year, especially the team we’ve got.
“We’ve got Vlads scoring the goals, we’re picking up points and we’ve got obviously the likes of Charns (Charnock) and Harrison (Walker) people that, we’ve brought in.
“We want to try and put the pieces together to be able to push on for them top two places and challenge them a bit more next year, but the main aim for this season is to finish strongly and keep doing what we’re doing.”
With the play-off weekend looming at the end of April, a higher finish will stand Widnes in good stead.
If everything remain as it is, Widnes in third would face Billingham Stars in sixth.
