Slava Koulikov reckons Manchester Phoenix are finally starting to produce the form which saw them lift the English Premier League last season.

The Russian-born British forward scored two of the goals which beat Bracknell on Monday to complete a four-game unbeaten run over the holiday period.

But Koulikov reckons it’s teamwork which is producing success.

“It’s a great feeling at the moment,” he said.

“We have been a solid 50 percent for about three months with injuries and other things but now we work as a team and have all stepped our game up.

“We win as a team not as individuals. When someone scores a hat-trick or someone else gets a game-winner it doesn’t matter.
“You can see that everyone is happy to be out there. Our coach expects everybody to step up and everybody has.
“That’s what has put us on this roll and hopefully we can continue.”

In the absence of player-coach Tony Hand, who faces at least another six weeks on the sidelines with a broken ankle, Koulikov has benefitted from playing alongside import forwards Martin Cingel and Juraj Faith.

“I’m happy playing alongside Juraj and Martin and maybe it suits my style because I’m more European style,” he said.
“It showed last year in Slough. Our line was European and we had a Canadian line and they worked really well.
“But it doesn’t matter where you play the main thing is that we are all working hard.

“There are a lot of guys like Ciaran Long, Tom Duggan – who’s injured at the moment – and Steve Wallace who are playing pretty good hockey right now.”

Phoenix face two road trips this weekend to Slough on Saturday (6.30pm) and Telford on Sunday (5.30pm) but Koulikov is hoping they can keep their run going.

He said: “All of us are playing better than we did in the first few weeks of the season.
“It is nice to see that everyone is picking it up at the right time.”

Koulikov reckons victory against Bracknell – courtesy of his overtime winner – came because Phoenix kept cool heads and carried on working until the final hooter. Phoenix outplayed the Bees but struggled to put their chances away.

“You want to score but we were 2-1 up so we were not worried. We were playing good hockey but just not scoring the goals.
“When they scored a goal with a couple of minutes to go that’s when maybe for a second you wonder what’s going on.
“But we carried on playing to the end and that’s why we got the two points.

“Instead of thinking it’s not going our way we worked right until the end.”