Blackburn Hawks face two matches in two days this weekend

The English National Ice Hockey League season commences this weekend with Blackburn Hawks travelling to the Kingston Jets.

The 2007/08 season saw the Hawks narrowly miss out on the play offs.

Manager Andy Slater told BBC Radio Lancashire: "It will make for a very exciting season. We would like to make the play-offs and that is our aim.

"With having a young team, I don't know if it's possible but if they play consistently then we could make it."

The summer break has provided evidence to support Slater's claims with promising performances in a recent tournament in Dumfries against the likes of the Dundee Tigers and the Whitely Warriors, as well as a recent victory in a testimonial match against local rivals Flintshire.

"We had a tournament up in Scotland, in which we did very well. We finished fourth and we were playing a lot tougher opposition than what we do in our league.

Hopefully we'll be able to keep this team together and challenge for honours in a couple of years. Blackburn Hawks manager Andy Slater

"We played the Flintshire Freeze in a testimonial and won 6-2 so it's looking well for the coming season."

The members of the Hawks team range from 17 to 28 years old, which is young in terms of hockey players, but Slater does not necessarily believe this is a disadvantage.

"Hopefully they'll gel together, they'll be together a lot longer. Obviously as you get older, you've got other family commitments and eventually you get to the point where you've got to hang your skates up and retire.

"Hopefully we'll be able to keep this team together and challenge for honours in a couple of years."

The Hawks have managed to keep hold of the majority of their players from last season and Slater believes that the experience of forwards such as Aaron Davis and Michael Brunton will be vital to this season's challenge.

In defence there is a good mix of both experienced players and younger talents, several of whom have performed at international level.

"Wayne Slater will be one of the mainstays; he's the oldest one with more experience, along with some of the young ones we have such as Craig Rogers and Ollie Lomax.

If we could get that for a couple of years consistently then I think we could go all the way to playing better level hockey Blackburn Hawks manager Andy Slater

"Some have played at international level for example Richard Bentham was a Great Britain player, we have some good experienced players."

The summer period saw changes to the structure of the league. It has been split up into two divisions with Coventry coming in from the Midlands League to join clubs who finished in the top half of the Northern League last year in Division One.

The teams that finished in the lower half of the league last year have been moved into Division Two.

Slater believes that the changes to the league will be to the club's advantage.

"They [Coventry] play Billingham, one of our tough oppositions, in the first weekend so we will able to gauge what strength they have."

With regards to the long-term ambitions of the club, the Hawks are looking to return to the heights they reached in the past, playing in the higher leagues. However, funding is crucial in order to achieve their goals.

"This is dependent on funding and if we can get people coming down and filling the arena. On average we get 200-500; we can actually fill the arena with 3,000 people.

"If we could get that for a couple of years consistently then I think we could go all the way to playing better level hockey."

Meanwhile, on the eve of the new season the Hawks have signed forwards Mark McDonald and Karl Downey and have agreed to release netminder Jonathan Tindall, who has earned a place in Nottingham University.

Weekend fixtures:

Saturday, 13 September
Kingston Jets v Blackburn Hawks - 1745 BST

Sunday, 14 September
Blackburn Hawks v Newcastle Vipers - 1745 BST