CLUB NEEDS RESULTS TO GO IN THEIR FAVOUR PIRATESARE STRANDED INSCENARIO LAND
Walker won’t give up hope
a newspaper
Paisley Pirates coach Adam Walker admits it’s frustrating the club’s league title hopes are out of their hands.
But he insists the Braehead Arena outfit will fight to the bitter end this weekend to give themselves an outside shot of finishing top of the SNL table.
The Renfrewshire team travel to face Dundee Tigers on Saturday night for the final game of the season, knowing a win would see them draw level with current league leaders Aberdeen Lynx.
Aberdeen take on fellow title hopefuls
Edinburgh Capitals on the same evening, with Paisley needing Edinburgh to win that clash before losing their game in hand against lowly North Ayrshire Wild on Sunday night.
While they need a lot to go their way to see the league title eventually come to Paisley, Walker is simply focusing on getting one final win on the board before seeing how the chips fall elsewhere.
He told Express Sport: “Ultimately, it is out of our hands. We’ve got a better head-to-head record against Aberdeen so we know if we finish level with them we’d finish above them.
“Edinburgh have a game in hand against Wild on Sunday night, which on paper isn’t great for us as they’ve only won a couple of games all season.
“We need a favour from Edinburgh on Saturday and then a favour from Wild on Sunday night, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens elsewhere across the weekend.
“Looking back, there have been a couple of games where we’ve not been at our best. That has ultimately cost us, but we could still finish first or we could end up finishing fourth.
“There’s so much still to play for and all we can do is focus on ourselves and beating Dundee Tigers.
“We’ll concentrate on ourselves and treat that game like a league title is on the line, because ultimately it still is.”
The Pirates head into the crunch clash on the back of a morale-boosting 4-3 away win against Aberdeen Lynx earlier this month.
With the play-off finals around the corner, Walker believes his team are in good shape heading into the business end of the season.
Walker said: “The playoffs are still a few weeks away but we do want to build momentum going into them.
“To beat Aberdeen at their own rink in the manner we did was superb. We’ve struggled before when games were tight to execute the game plan.
“To stick to the plan and get that one over the line was massive for the players.
“They’ve learned how to grind out that win in a tight situation and that could be big heading into the play-offs.”