SAM GOSPEL may be the man to have garnered all the plaudits over the past couple of weekends for Leeds Knights – and justifiably so – but head coach Ryan Aldridge believes there are plenty of unsung heroes in front of him.

Last weekend saw the Knights record back-to-back shutouts, following up a hard-fought 3-0 win at home to Romford Raiders on Saturday before making the long trip south to Basingstoke Bison the following day a worthwhile one when they overcame the hosts 2-0.

That result carried more weight, given it secured the Knights’ place in the semi-finals of the NIHL National Cup - the trophy they won for the first-ever time last season.

But, as recently as two weeks ago, their place in the last four was far from assured, with the Knights needing to win their last two qualification games on the road at Swindon Wildcats and Basingstoke to clinch a spot.

That they were able to achieve what was required - their 4-1 win at Swindon inflicting a first home defeat of the season on their hosts - speaks volumes about the character of the players Aldridge has at his disposal.

“We’d not had the easiest of starts this season, but we were still sitting in a pretty good spot and we wanted to defend our Cup title,” said Aldridge. “We’re a team that wants to be hunting trophies all of the time - we know it doesn’t happen all the time, but we want to be around it all the time.

“To not be in the Cup semi-finals, wouldn’t have been good enough for our group, so to get through - especially having to win our last two games and given where those two games were and who we had available in the line-up - it was an awesome achievement.”

Of course, Gospel had a major role in both wins and while Aldridge is not looking to take anything away from his “unbelievable” first-choice netminder, he is keen to point out the role played by those in front of him..

KEEPING IT CLEAN: LEeds Knights and netminder Sam Gospel produced two shutouts last weekend. Picture: Ben Gordon/Knights Media.

placeholder image — KEEPING IT CLEAN: LEeds Knights and netminder Sam Gospel produced two shutouts last weekend. Picture: Ben Gordon/Knights Media.

In their last four games, the Knights have been outshot but, for Aldridge, it is where those shots are coming from that matters more.

"I'm not taking anything away from Sam at all because he has been absolutely unbelievable, but, especially in Basingstoke - and Saturday night against Romford - if you look at the shots, we largely kept them to the outside.

“There’s a thing about the shots, people say ‘oh, you got heavily outshot’ - but, for me, that doesn’t matter one bit if they are shooting from the outside, you can get outshot all day long, especially when you’ve got Gossy in net.

“What matters is where the shots come from and I believe we’ve been out-shooting teams in key areas for the last couple of games, so I’m happy with the way the boys are playing in front of Sam.”