Ideal start as Wild welcome the fans back

WIDNES Wild player coach Richard Haggar was delighted as his side kicked off their season with victory over Sheffield Titans on Sunday.

The return of supporters to Planet

Ice made for a memorable occasion to kickstart the campaign.

“The game was an excellent way to start the season,” said Haggar.

“We have a lot of new faces so, to get lines together and getting everyone some game time before the weekend ahead was vital for us.

“I felt by the third period everything started to click – which is what we hoped for with a lot of positives to take away but highlighted some areas in which we need to work on.

“It was great also to see so many fans back in the building cheering us on too and I hope to see even more next week for our first home league game of the season.”

It was the first senior game to be played in front of fans at Widnes for 18 months due to the Covid lockdowns and a keen crowd was in attendance to see player coach Haggar’s new-look Wild team.

Widnes debuts were handed to Tom

Brierley, Nathan Parkes-Britton, Vlads Vulkanovs, Joe Wyatt, Chris Wilcox, Evan Cole, Tom Stubley,

Cain Taylor, Jack Murray, Liam Charnock and Kieron Furlong and this game was a good opportunity for them to gel with the returning Wild players before the competitive season starts in earnest next week.

The opposing Titans team are a new outfit who were only formed in the summer as a development side to allow younger players from the Sheffield Academy to gain senior league experience on a regular basis.

They have filled the gap left in the lower Laidler Division by the Sheffield Scimitars who have moved up to join the Wild in the Moralee Division this time around.

It was the Titans’ first ever game of any sort and, with the best will in the world, coming up against a team packed with players with NIHL National Division experience, the final result was always likely to be a foregone conclusion.

The Wild took the lead just 90 seconds into the game with a debut strike from Nathan Parkes-Britton and there then followed a tense phase where Widnes continued to put pressure on the Sheffield goal, without managing any further breakthrough.

The second goal finally came after 16 minutes from Kieran Beach and the score remained at 2-0 at the first period break.

The home side edged further ahead with a goal from Joe Greaves on 26 minutes but they were then caught out with two quick fire goals from the Titans to pull the score back to 3-2.

Jay Robinson buried the puck in the net for the Wild to get them back on track just two minutes later and second strikes for both Beach and Greaves rounded off a highly entertaining 6-goal second period.

The match was well and truly killed off with four more Widnes goals in the first 5 minutes of the third period – from Liam Charnock, Mikey Gilbert, Tristan Grimshaw and Richard Haggar.

The Wild face a much sterner test next weekend when they travel to face

Blackburn Hawks in the NIHL Midland Cup on Saturday 11th September – 6pm face off.

They are then home in their first Moralee Division league fixture of the season the following night against reigning champions Whitley Warriors.

Doors open at

4.45pm and face off is at 5.30.