Kingstone Press League 1 Preview: Coventry Bears v Swinton Lions

Coventry Bears got their first away win at London Skolars last week.

Coach Tom Tsang said: “It was great, we’re very happy. We performed really well in the first half and executed the game plan to a T. We slackened off a little bit after the first 50 minutes and came away from what we’d been doing but we did enough in the first half to get us over the line.

“It proves that we’re still going in the right direction, which is very pleasing. We’d lost five on the bounce so it was good to break that cycle and give the guys a bit of confidence for the rest of the year.

“One of the most pleasing aspects has been that in the last three games we’ve had 100 per cent Coventry Bears teams – no loans or dual registrations – which bodes well for the future.

“Looking at Swinton’s results it looks like they’re going to be another hard team to play against. They had a good win last week and they can score points.

“I know a few of their players and there’s a lot of experience in the team. It will be a good test but the way we’ve been building, we’ll go and do our best and we’re at home, where we tend to play quite well.”

Skipper Simon Phillips, who has picked up a few knocks in recent weeks, is likely to be rested.

Swinton Lions had a fine win over Newcastle Thunder and coach John Duffy said: “I was pleased with the result and the two points but we switched off in the second half.

“All credit to Newcastle, they came back at us really well. But credit to the boys, they defended really well and got their just rewards at vital points in the game.

“We’ve not played Coventry before and Tom’s doing a great job down there. They had a good result at the weekend so we’re going to have to prepare well this week.

“I watched them a few weeks ago at Keighley and they’re got some great players, Dan Parker is a real danger for them. We’ll need to be at our best to get a result.”