THE talking stops for Blackburn Hawks tonight as the ice hockey season "proper" gets under way.

But coach Bobby Haig admits the opening fixture in the English Premier League could hardly have been tougher. Hawks travel to tackle Swindon Chill, the team they lost to in the English Cup last weekend.

Haig and Co have revenge very much on their minds as they bid to get the league campaign off to a flying start for that defeat barred their way into the second round of the cup competition.

The two teams will certainly know each other well come the end of this weekend for Chill are due at the Arena for another cup clash tomorrow night (face off 6pm). Haig believes Hawks can make a real impression this season, especially as they appear to have unearthed a real scoring nugget in import ace Andrew Dickson. "It's vital that we win both games this weekend," he said. "We're all bitterly disappointed that we can't move on into the next round of the cup, we've been playing well, but obviously not well enough.

"We must beat Swindon by two goals when we taken them back to our place on Sunday. If we can do that, then we can at least hold our heads up in second place in the cup table. I'm positive we will do at leas that.

"It's important to send out signals to other teams at this stage in the campaign, and we want teams to be frightened when they come here."

But first Haig kicks off their league campaign on Saturday, and he is keen to set out Hawks' stall for the rest of the season with a rabblerousing victory. After the disappointment of last season, Haig is desperate to rip the English Premier League apart.

"Again it's about sending out the right signals and a win tomorrow puts us on the right track from day one," he said. "It's important that we get off on the right foot and don't start playing catch-up from the off."

Haig has no injury worries to hold them back, and with the luxury of a full squad is confident of clinching a morale boosting double.

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