Leeds Knights: Coach Ryan Aldridge taking things one step at a time ahead of Basingstoke Bison clash

The 43-year-old has been installed on an interim basis after the sudden exit of Dave Whistle on Wednesday.

After carrying out a mid-season review on the team, owner Steve Nell told Whistle he would only be operating in a GM role going forward as he wished to bring in a different coach.

That coach was Aldridge, who got to meet the players for the first time at Thursday’s practice session and was immediately impressed with what he saw, using last night’s training to get his message across further ahead of tomorrow’s clash at home against Basingstoke Bison.

For now, Aldridge is just concentrating on matters that he and the players control, playing to their strengths and trying not to worry too much about who is lining up on the other side of the halfway line.

“ I said to the boys on Thursday that I’m not going to come in and, with the skillset they have got, sit there and say ‘this is how we’re going to play against each and every team,’” said Aldridge, who worked for Nell as both coach of Swindon Wildcats and at the Okanagan Hockey Academy.

“It is early doors. Of course it is going to come in time, but we’ve got too much stuff that we need to talk about as a group and get sorted out as a group before we move on to that.

“We’re going to play to our strengths, we’re going to go at them and make it for them to hopefully adjust to us. We haven’t got the time right now to sit here worrying about other teams right now, we’ve just got to worry about ourselves.”

Sitting fifth in the table and 13 points off leaders Telford Tigers and, even with 23 regular season games remaining, Aldridge admits it will be tough to overhaul all of the teams currently above them.

“I think it is going to be a tough ask,” he added. “There are obviously a lot of good teams in this league.

“And I think this team should be focussing on the play-offs and what they can get done and it’s about building and building, slowly and slowly for the playoffs.

“Should Leeds be a playoff contender? 100 per cent.”

Former Hull Pirates defenceman Jamie Chilcott, signed on Thursday, is expecgted to make his debut against the Bison.