The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Slava has a pop at ‘gutless’ Webster
Phantoms head coach Slava Koulikov has branded one of the club’s former players as being ‘gutless’.
Koulikov blasted Raiders man Mason Webster following a third-period incident during the city side’s 7-1 success last Sunday night.
Webster - an English Premier League play-offs winner during a spell with Phantoms in the 2014/15 campaign under Koulikov - launched an attack on Phantoms youngster Jack Escott with his side already 7-1 down.
It was an incident which left Koulikov visibly angered on the bench and he was still unhappy when questioned about it afterwards.
“We know teams can make tactical plays when two or three goals down to try to shake things up,” said Koulikov. “But this was a 7-1 game.
“It doesn’t matter if it was his decision or an instruction that came from the bench. He picked on an 18 year-old kid, dropped the gloves and started punching him. “Does that make anything better? What is the point of it?
“What really annoys me is that Mason played for me and I know what a passionate guy he is about hockey.
“I told him straight away that what he did in that situation was gutless, but Mason and the Raiders bench responded by swearing at me and of course you react in the heat of the moment.”
Webster escaped with only a 2+2 penalty for fighting with referee Will Hewitt giving the same punishment to Escott even though he made no attempt to throw punches.