Leeds Knights stay grounded ahead of gruelling second half of NIHL National season

But what may be of even greater significance - according to head coach Ryan Aldridge - is the dedication and focus of his players, a quality he believes brought them even closer together as a unit.

Top points-scorer Grant Cooper may be heading through the exit door at some point in the next two weeks, but he knows he is leaving behind a tight-knit group.

Aldridge feels he saw the battling qualities of his team come to the fore over the Christmas period, tested as it was at various times in two games apiece against Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Steeldogs and Hull Seahawks.

After the Knights had extended their winning streak to six games with Sunday’s 7-2 hammering of Hull, Aldridge admitted the home locker room was a pretty special place to be.

Not because there was any particular over-exuberance on the part of his players, more a realisation that the previous week represented nothing more than a job well done, but that there were still many more hurdles to overcome in their battle for the regular season league title.

To have still only lost once in regulation by early January, remains a remarkable achievement by Aldridge and his players but, he insists they will leave the back-slapping to those outside the Knights’ room.

“That week between Christmas and New Year couldn’t have gone any better for us - we got the results, obviously, but we also got the performances,” said Aldridge.

“The best one (performance) for me was New Year’s Day - not just because of the scoreline, but it made me realise what the boys had bought into and what they wanted to accomplish.

“They could have quite easily been led astray the night before and it was a tough few days overall on the bodies. There were people travelling home and stuff to see family, but they proved what they were made of over the course of that week.

“There’s been a good feeling in that locker room all season and it’s just getting tighter and tighter as we go along.

“After the win at home against Hull, the locker room was a good place to be afterwards, but in the right way. We weren’t getting excited or ahead of ourselves, you could just tell they were a solid, tight group.

“The way that they competed over the Christmas period and looked after themselves for the team, it was quite special for me as a coach to see that.”

Poised at exactly the halfway stage of the 56-game campaign ahead of this weekend’s double-header against Bristol Pitbulls, that team togetherness of the Knights is likely to be sorely tested time and time again over the coming weeks.

Staying healthy, as always, will be crucial, as it is to any team’s chances of success in any sport.

What bodes well for the Knights, though, is that they have been missing key bodies in recent weeks - particularly in defence - but have come through it relatively unscathed in terms of results.

“It’s going to be hectic over these next three months or so and we need to try and stay as healthy as we can,” added Aldridge.

“Mac (Howlett) coming in has obviously helped with that numbers wise and we seem to be getting all our ‘D’ back healthy, hopefully at the right time.

“So we can share the workload and that is something which I felt our fourth line helped out with massively, especially at home against Hull the other night, just taking a bit of the workload off after the three games before.

“So it’s going to be about managing the workload, keeping guys upbeat and keeping guys healthy.”