Tonight: Storm and Panthers both needing wins

Photo: Mark Ferris

Manchester Storm and Nottingham Panthers meet for the first game of a home and home weekend tonight in a series which both teams ideally need to come out of with four points.

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Manchester are arguably in most need of the points having slipped to three points behind the playoff places and having played three more games than Dundee. To stay in the hunt, Storm will need to break a six-game winless streak, and better a recent record of just one win in nine games. They will have only 14 games left to play this season after this weekend.

Nottingham's good road win in Guildford last weekend ended their run of three straight defeats, but a 5-0 thrashing in Coventry midweek stopped the Panthers from building any kind of momentum off it. While cracking the top three is all but gone for the Panthers, who are 17 points off the pace, the real battle is now starting below them. Glasgow (six points behind with four games in hand), Guildford (six points behind with one game in hand) and Coventry (eight points behind with five games in hand) could all now pose a real threat to knocking the Panthers out of fourth as the season enters its decisive phase. Maximum points this weekend may not make things any more comfortable, but failing to pick up any could make Mark Matheson's team's task somewhat more difficult.

Manchester won the only league meeting between the teams at the Storm Shelter this season 4-0.