THIS weekend we welcome Hull Pirates to the Link Centre for the first time and I think their arrival in the English Premier League is only a good thing for everyone involved.

More teams help to keep the league more competitive and an even number of teams means every team is able to play on the same night and the cross-over Challenge Cup, which was a bit of a non-starter, has been scrapped.

New owner, Paul Smith, who used to own the Sheffield Steeldogs, has kept some players that were involved with the former Hull Stingrays side.

With the southern sides, you know more of the players because of the junior set-up. For Hull, with the northern leagues, we haven’t come across many of the players so that is always interesting.

It is also good to have some more teams from the north. There are players who probably find themselves in a bit of limbo because the north is covered mainly by the Elite League and that is a step that really only the top British players can make.

There are players like myself, who are probably borderline Premier League and National League players, who now have an opportunity to play a higher level.

If it was another southern-based team coming in, you could argue that it might dilute the league a little bit, but I think there is still a good pool of British players.

With the changes to imports in the Elite League, there is going to be a larger pool of British players looking to play, so it can only be a good thing having the extra side.

I would imagine that they would be looking to try and settle themselves this year, next year to try and build, and then the year after that you are looking for them to be challenging.

They have had some good results, especially in their rink because they have got the advantage of every team that plays there is going to have a long journey, whether it be on a Saturday or a Sunday.

This Saturday’s game is a must-win. No disrespect to Hull but most sides are not going to drop points to them and it is a case of concentration and making sure you have good habits because sometimes, the games you think you should win, you end up struggling a bit.