MATCH PREVIEW – MK LIGHTNING

Match Preview – Milton Keynes Lightning

Team News:

Swindon Wildcats – Renny Marr (NM), Dean Skinns (NM), Sam Godfrey, Neil Liddiard, Ben Nethersell, Tyler Plews, Sam Smith, Stevie Whitfield, Edgars Bebris, Sam Bullas, Ollie Endicott, Jack Goodchild, Bailey Hind-Pitcher, Chris Jones, Tomasz Malasinski, Aaron Nell, Balint Pakozdi, Reed Sayers, Emil Svec, Floyd Taylor, Cain Russell, Declan Balmer

Milton Keynes Lightning – Brandon Stones (NM), Matt Smital (NM), Lewis Christie, Ross Green, James Griffin, Leigh Jamieson, Ed Knaggs, Milique Martelly, Ben Russell, Sam Russell, Tyler Nixon, Hallden Barnes-Garner, Bobby Chamberlain, Russ Cowley, Callum Field, Adam Laishram, Edgars Landsbergs, Zaine McKenzie, Sean Norris, Michael Power, Liam Stewart, Sam Talbot

Club History:

The Milton Keynes Lightning franchise was born out of the void left by the Milton Keynes Kings team that moved to Solihull to replace the Blaze who moved into their new rink in Coventry. The Lightning franchise was formed in 2002 and they entered the EPL where they saw some instant success.

In the Lightning’s first 4 seasons they were crowned the play-off champions in every single season and League title winners in 2 of those 4 years. They were the dominant force in the early days of the EPL before the big money teams of the defunct BNL joined, Manchester and Basingstoke dropping out of the Elite and then latterly the Red Hockey money that funded Telford’s success.

In the later years of the EPL Milton Keynes were always a good side and regularly competed for trophies despite falling short of success on many occasions, their final EPL success came with a playoff final win in 2017 which turned out to be the final hurrah of the EPL itself.

The Lightning made the brave decision to step up to the Elite League for the 2018-19 season and their departure plus Guildford joining them ultimately led to the demise of the EPL. In their two seasons in the Elite, MK struggled to 11^th placed finishes both times and ultimately the spiralling costs of competing led to a messy exit and ownership dispute that left the very future of the Lightning in real jeopardy.

Thankfully for the Lightning fans and UK hockey as a whole, the “new” Lightning joined the new NIHL National division where they ply their trade to this day.

Previous Seasons Performance:

NIHL National – 6^th – GP50 – W24 – L20 – OTL6 – GF201 – GA205 – PTS54

21/22 Season Meetings So Far:

07/10/2021 Milton Keynes Lightning 5-4 Swindon Wildcats

30/10/2021 Swindon Wildcats 7-4 Milton Keynes Lightning

06/11/2021 Milton Keynes Lightning 1-6 Swindon Wildcats

Previous Season Meetings:

26/10/2019 Swindon Wildcats 7-0 Milton Keynes Lightning

03/11/2019 Milton Keynes Lightning 1-5 Swindon Wildcats

18/01/2020 Milton Keynes Lightning 3-4 Swindon Wildcats

29/02/2020 Swindon Wildcats 4-5 Milton Keynes Lightning

The Coach:

Tonight’s opposing head coach is Lewis Clifford, he started out his career with a singular season in Oxford in the old ENL and after this he made the move to Milton Keynes where he has stayed ever since. Clifford was a forward and he played for the MK Thunder for the next 9 years in the ENL and despite representing the team in a lot of games he was mainly on the team for his work rate rather than point scoring ability.

For his first venture into coaching, Clifford stepped up as a player coach for the Thunder between 2009-2011 and following this he retired from playing to step behind the bench as an assistant coach with the Milton Keynes Lightning in the EPL. This was a role he stayed in for the next 6 seasons and following the Lightning’s move up to the Elite League he made the choice to step down to the Thunder and take up the head coaching duties in the NIHL.

With the move back down into the countries second tier the Lightning turned to Clifford to be the head coach and this season will be 2^nd that he takes charge of the Lightning as a head coach after a 6^th place finish in the 2019-20 season.