Leeds Knights: Sam Gospel confident of realising trophy ambitions with Knights

With just 13 games left and sitting 11 points behind current leaders Telford Tigers, the NIHL National regular season title is almost certainly out of the Knights’ grasp.

But once the post-season play-offs kick in, Gospel believes Leeds have the necessary game that can bring success, something which if it proved true would represent a remarkable success in the franchise’s first-ever season.

“I think we’re a team that teams don’t particularly want to play – we’ve proved we can score and score often and that is always a crucial thing in the play-offs,” said the 27-year-old netminder.

“We obviously want to finish as high as we can in the league but the play-offs is the goal, that’s where we want to prove we’re a Championship team.

“We’ve been unlucky with injuries earlier in the season and I think that put a big bump in the road with regards to the league title – but I 100 per cent believe we can win the playoffs, with the team that we’ve got, I’m very confident.”

Gospel and forward Kieran Brown are the only two players signed up by Knights’ owner Steve Nell so far for next season, but they will be aware of the team’s intentions in terms of recruitment for the 2022-23 campaign.

It’s why Gospel was so happy to tie himself to the Elland Road outfit until the end of the 2023-24 season, confident his desire to win again – like he did in Nottingham and Telford – can be fulfilled in West Yorkshire.

“I wouldn’t be coming back if I didn’t think that were possible,” added Gospel. “I’ve won things in the past at different clubs and you don’t really get tired of that feeling.

“That was one of the big reasons why I wanted to remain in Leeds because I believe it is the best place to win something it’s the place where I want to be.

“Going forward, we should definitely be knocking on the door for trophies and championships – as a minimum.

“Overall this year, I’m happy with how we’ve done so far. I would love to secure a place in that top three, something I think is still achievable.

“We are relying on other teams to drop points but, as a group, if we close off the games that we need to I’m confident we’ll crack that top three.”

In order to crack that top three, the Knights must start by exacting some swift revenge on hosts Basingstoke Bison tomorrow night.

The Knights’ last trip to Hampshire brought success in the form of a 4-3 win, the first part of a weekend double over Ashley Tait’s team completed when the teams met again 24 hours later at Elland Road in an encounter which resulted in a 3-2 win for the hosts.

But the two meetings since then – both in Leeds – have gone the way of the Bison, the most recent coming two weeks ago in a fully-deserved 5-1 win.

It was a rare setback for the Knights under head coach Ryan Aldridge who makes the long trip south without centre Brandon Whistle, on whom Sheffield Steelers now have first call.

Also, Aldridge won’t know until tomorrow exactly which of the Manchester Storm contingent he will have on his bench. Centre Philip Edgar – with the Knights for the rest of the season – will be on the team coach having returned for last weekend’s wins over Raiders IHC and Peterborough Phantoms.