Leeds Knights - 2025 NIHL National Cup winners - video Dailymotion

Yorkshire Post

Interviews and footage of Leeds Knights winning the NIHL National Cup against Romford Raiders including captain Kieran brown, Matt Haywood and head coach Ryan Aldridge

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00:00We have given up on this one, the Knights of the Cup final winners, for the first time

00:16ever.

00:17And there's the celebrations.

00:18Yeah, it's a big weight lifted off the shoulders, you know, we've been trying to win it for

00:32the past four years and unfortunately we couldn't do it, but we knew we had to do it this year

00:37and we did the job.

00:38You came up against a good team, Rodford Raiders, that pushed you hard last night, pushed you

00:41hard to start with in the first period tonight, coming back, trailing by one goal, what were

00:46your thoughts?

00:47Honestly, I thought it was a positive thing because, you know, if we come back one up,

00:50we might have taken it a bit lighter, but you know, we were down so we knew we had to

00:53grab straight away, which we did and got the win in the end.

00:57It's been a tough old, long old season again, what does getting this first trophy out of

01:03the way mean for the rest of the year?

01:04Yeah, it's just a positive, you know, we've got this one out of the way and there's two

01:07more up for grabs, so, you know, back to work on Tuesday and yeah, we want to win the trophies

01:12as well.

01:14And that's it, the Leeds Knights are the National Club Champions.

01:20Yeah, of course, I mean, as one picked off the list, we're still in contention of having

01:25another one and then obviously play-offs when you get there, however that plays out, so

01:30the intention is to take every game and ideally start like we did today and hopefully, I think

01:36we showed our best self in that first period today, I thought we were fantastic, we were

01:40on the front foot, we were aggressive and yeah, obviously we got the rewards for playing

01:46them out then.

01:47And does it take a bit of pressure off perhaps, the fact that you have already got one in

01:50the bag, not that I'm suggesting we've been really tough, but does it sort of say, well,

01:54you know, regardless of what happened to the rest of the season, we've already had a good

01:57season?

01:58I wouldn't look at it like that, I think what I would say is it's such a nice feeling having

02:02a win in that group and we've enjoyed the win, I think we want to do it again, so I

02:09think it's kind of spurred us on to get more.

02:11And also, that league title means a lot, doesn't it?

02:13Yeah, I mean, we've won it for two years, the league's a lot more competitive this year,

02:16we've got two teams really battling it out with us, I don't know how they've got on tonight,

02:20so...

02:21I think Northern Keynes won tonight.

02:23OK, well that's, listen, all we can do is focus on ourselves, we've been like that all

02:27three years I've been here, we're not getting caught up in a few other teams, all we can

02:30do is win our games, so hopefully it comes to that, but as long as we go down swinging,

02:35I'm happy.

02:40It's been a long time coming, I think the guys that have been here two or three years

02:43or even from the start, it's always got away from them, but I think the nerves over the

02:47weekend were probably a little bit high, I'm thinking it just wasn't meant to be, but I

02:52think the way the boys, I think probably losing maybe in their building last night probably

02:56did us a good thing, took the pressure off a little bit, I thought they responded right

03:02from the start, they were phenomenal, and yeah, I'm excited to beat us when we go out.

03:08I was going to say, because that game, that first leg, sort of turned so late, two goals

03:14they scored in the last five minutes, that obviously changed your thinking on the way

03:17home and your approach to this game, I would imagine?

03:19Yeah, we did video at 1 o'clock this morning when we got back, so for me it's just that

03:25last night was, again, nerves, but it's the controllables we didn't last night at times,

03:32so we know we needed a reaction, we just wanted us to be us, and I think we got that.

03:38For more UN videos visit www.un.org

Leeds Knights - 2025 NIHL National Cup winners

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