BLACKBURN Hawks face another stern examination of their title credentials when Dumfries Border Vikings are this Sunday's visitors to the Arena (face-off 6pm).

Hawks have a blank Saturday after losing at Swindon in midweek, but the Scottish outfit will provide another stiff test for a Hawks side which has staggered a little of late, losing three out of the last 10, and two in just over a week.

Dumfries stand fourth in the table, and games against the pack of clubs vying for play-off spots have been coming thick and fast for Hawks in recent weeks.

The Blackburn side do have the edge in the three previous meetings with Vikings this season, but every game has been a close-fought affair, Hawks winning the previous home clash by a single point.

Player-coach Ryan Kummu was not too surprised or deflated by his sides' attack of title 'jitters.'

"When you stand back and look at what we've achieved, we've accomplished some amazing things this season.

"We've beaten every other team in our division at least once, we're the only side to win in Manchester, and if anyone had predicted we'd only have five losses by this stage you'd have laughed at them.

"I can't possibly be unhappy and I'm certainly not going to press the panic button.

"If you look at everyone else's roster we probably carry the smallest number of guys and our budget dictates that. What we have is very talented guys and the fact that we've suffered a couple of setbacks doesn't mean the skill level has dropped.

"I believe we need to bring a couple of guys in and we'll be searching very hard to find them right up to the end of the month, which is the cut-off date for transfers.

"If you look at the three Finns Swindon brought over, they were nothing special but they just gave them a bit more depth, probably half-decent second line players."

Turning to Sunday's game, Kummu added: "We just approach it like any other. We train Friday and Saturday because whenever you meet a team like Dumfries you've got to be at your sharpest.

"With being on our own ice and taking the previous results into consideration the odds are possibly stacked in our favour, but when you keep playing the top teams back to back it means you need to be a 100 per cent every time."

Manchester Storm coach John Lawless and his assistant Daryl Lipsey were among the spectators at Swindon on Thursday, running the rule over Hawks. Storm now lead the table by two points from two games less played. The second Nynex Arena clash between the top two is again being shown live on Sky TV's 'Ice Warriors' show on Wednesday, February 21.

Swindon Star journalist Dave Eaton revealed his role in Wildcat's acquisition of three new Finnish players for Thursday's win over Hawks.

"A friend of mine Bob Radford was out in Finland covering Speedway and contacted me to ask if Wildcats Chairman Bob Dewar was interested in a couple of players. A colleague in Tampere recommended the two brothers, Jari and Joni Virtanen, so he arranged for them to fly over at six o'clock on Thursday morning.

"Petri Murtovaara was already in Britain, but we became aware his negotiations with Durham and Newcastle hadn't come to anything so we rang Bob Dewar and said: 'we haven't got two Finns - we've got three.'"

"The brothers couldn't even warm up because their gear went missing and they were only re-united with it after the game was underway. They joined the game after 10 minutes.

"The key to beating Blackburn is to keep their first line quiet which is what Swindon did on Thursday and our players feel they would have won in Blackburn last week but for the disputed penalties to two players late on."

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