Murrayfield Racers coach Martin Cingel wants young players to get an education at Telford

Martin Cingel may play for the Racers at Telford. Pic: Ian Coyle

Racers, minus seven injured players, suffered a 9-1 mauling by Tigers last Sunday at Murrayfield and Cingel, who may play on Saturday after three weeks out with a lower body injury, believes the experience gained playing ice hockey at a higher level outweighs any “horrible results” for the Scottish National League side.

Cingel said: “These are good games for our players, and gives them a look at a higher standard of hockey. Telford is one of the better teams in the NIHL. We could see last Sunday how fast they were in transition, how they executed their chances and played really hard in the right areas. These are the small things our young kids should be taking from these matches and try to implement in their own game. The result looks horrible, but our players need to learn how to play at high speed. You have less time on the puck. When we play in the SNL everything is that little bit slower. So to play these more experienced teams like Telford, is really beneficial for us.”

Racers will still be missing the Elite League experience of former Edinburgh Capitals duo Callum Boyd and Sean Beattie. However, things are looking up on the injury front, with defenceman Ross Borthwick and Ethan Reid, plus the club’s top goalscorer, Daniel Abercrombie, all set to play.

Cingel, who prior to joining the Racers coaching staff, spent 11 of his 20-year professional career playing in the Capital, continued: “It’s really difficult to protect the house against these guys. They slow the game down when they need to and we were very naive in our defensive zone. Hopefully, we learned a lesson there and we execute our game-plan much better on Saturday.”