3 Days To Go

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Simon

With only three days until the 2nd leg between Nottingham Lions and Sutton Sting (Two days until the 1st leg in Sheffield), LionsTV caught up with Lions captain Nick Whyatt for his thoughts on the upcoming play off weekend.

Ticket Prices:

Adults £5.00
Children (Under 16) & OAP’s £3.00
Students (with NUS Card) £2.50
Panthers Season Ticket Holders (must show Panthers Season Ticket) £3.00

Tickets are available in advance from the Arena Box Office or via the Arena Ticket Hotline – 0843 373 3000.

Tickets will be available to buy from the Arena Box Office on the day of the game but we strongly recommend you purchase in advance and avoid any possible queues.

Lions Maul Metros

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Simon

Trafford Metros 2 Nottingham Lions 5

Four goals from Joe Wightman and one from Gareth O’Flaherty helped the Lions to a deserved 5-2 victory over the Trafford Metros at Altrincham Ice Dome on Saturday evening.

In one of their best performances of the season, Nottingham dominated the game with some controlled passing and decisive finishing, whilst Trafford spurned the majority of chances that did fall their way.

Wightman grabbed his first after six minutes, combining well with Nick Whyatt to fire past Metros goalie Dave Clancy.

Trafford found Lions netminder Richard Griffiths in fine form from the off, as he tipped a Jamie Rogerson shot onto the post six minutes later, but he couldn’t prevent Max Drakeley equalising with seven remaining in the first period.

four goal hero - Joe Wightman

Wightman put Nottingham back in front within three minutes of the start of the second period before Michael Rose got a good few more punches in than his opponent John Murray after the pair dropped their gloves on the half-hour mark.

A prolonged Lions attack on Clancy’s goal then followed, Gareth O’Flaherty finally slotting home with twenty seconds left to give Nottingham a two goal cushion going into the third.

Wightman completed his hat-trick after three minutes of the restart before getting his fourth of the night ten minutes later.

Metros’ Sean Day scored what was only ever going to be a consolation goal with six minutes remaining before referee Dave Emmerson was kept busy, dishing out a plethora of penalties after a line brawl in the dying seconds of the game.

Post-game interviews with Man of the Match Joe Wightman and Head Coach Matt Bradbury are available to watch on LionsTV – the Lions’ online TV channel.

Nottingham now have two more games left to pick-up more points in the hope of avoiding the uncertainty of a relegation play-off against the runners-up in Division 2. Both games are at home against the Blackburn Hawks and the first is this Sunday (11th March) with a 7.15pm face-off at the National Ice Centre.

Game Stats:

Joe Wightman 4+1, Gareth O’Flaherty 1+0, Jack Clarkson 0+3, Nick Whyatt 0+2.

Period Scores: 1st 1-1, 2nd 0-2, 3rd 1-2.

Shots: 1st 12-6, 2nd 11-13, 3rd 12-11. Total 35-30.

Penalty Mins: 1st 0-0, 2nd 4-6, 3rd 40-12. Total 44-18.

Lions MOTM: Joe Wightman.

Titans Prove Too Much For Lions

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Simon

Nottingham Lions 3 Telford Titans 6

The Lions first home game of 2012 saw the visit of the free-scoring Telford Titans to the NIC on Sunday night.

Telford came into the den in high spirits on the back of three straight wins in 2012 scoring 28 goals in the process whilst the Lions were looking for their first win of the new year after a narrow 4-2 defeat at Billingham last Sunday.

New boys James Robinson and Nicky Balchin were in the squad to make their debuts for the Lions whilst captain Chris Colegate was still out injured.

A free-flowing first period saw the Lions take first blood after two minutes thanks to Joe Wightman (01.53).

As expected the Titans looked dangerous in front of Richard Griffiths’ net and eventually broke through at 10.55, courtesy of Karol Jets.

A deflected shot on the powerplay from Dan Taylor put the Titans into the lead (14.23) before seconds-later, Joe Wightman popped up for his second (15.08) to tie things up going into the second period.

Head Coach Matt Bradbury decided a change of netminder was required as Sam Gospel entered the fray within 3 minutes of the restart after Chris Jones put Telford back in front on 22.30.

Both teams then grazed the metalwork Chris Jones firing one off the bar before Joe Wightman found himself centimeters from a hat-trick scraping the bar at the other end.

Lions were unlucky not to find an equaliser before the end of the period with some unlucky bounces falling their way and some narrow misses but Benjamin Hunt in the Titans goal held firm to see out the period.

Nottingham equalised for the second time through Nick Whyatt (44.08) to set up a thrilling finish, but as the period wore on Telford gained the upper hand – Chris Jones getting his second of the day (49.08) followed Dan Taylor capitalising on an uncharacteristic error for Marcus Maynard in his own zone to hit the Telford’s fifth (57.22).

The Lions then tried to grab back a hold on the game, pulling Gospel for an extra attacker but their efforts were in vein as Chris Jones completed his hat-trick with an empty-net goal (58.59).

Post game interviews with Matt Bradbury, Nick Whyatt and Gareth O’Flaherty plus Telford Titans’ Paul Shuttleworth and Dan Taylor are now available to view on LionsTV – our online TV channel.

Two tough but important away games now await Nottingham, as they travel to the Coventry Blaze next Saturday before making the trip to Blackburn to take on the Hawks on the Sunday.

Game Stats:

Joe Wightman 2+1, Nick Whyatt 1+1, Jonny Bell 0+1, Ben Wood 0+1.

Scores – 1st 1-1, 2nd 1-2, 3rd 1-3.

Shots – 1st 19-15, 2nd 15-18, 3rd 15-19, Total – 49-52.

Pen Mins. – 1st 2-2, 2nd 4-2, 3rd 0-0, Total – 6-4.

Lions MOTM – Nicky Balchin.

Nottingham Lions 2 Telford Titans 7 (16/10/11)

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Danny

Two goals and a man of the match performance from Nick Whyatt weren’t enough for the Nottingham Lions as they went down 7-2 at the National Ice Centre last Sunday night.

Head Coach Matt Bradbury commented “As a team we switch off at key moments and a lot of that is down to inexperience and that’s when teams like Telford capitalise and take their chances. At times during the game we had Telford on the back foot and outshot them 33-30, whilst we didn’t pick up points it’s key that we keep that fighting spirit. ”

“Telford are a good outfit and should be challenging for honours this season – they are well drilled and have many years of experience”

We face difficult back to back away games this weekend facing Sheffield Spartans (Saturday) and Solihull Barons (Sunday).

“It’s vital that we pick up points this weekend as we are too close to the bottom of the league for comfort. We need players to stop feeling sorry for themselves get their heads down, roll up their sleeves and get on with it.”

Lions netminder Alan Levers will be out for two weeks with an injured knee after a collision with a Telford player during the Lions 7-2 defeat to Telford.