Coach's Corner - Week 20

Hello there one more time Bee Army.   Another important victory picked up at the Hive but a tough weekend on the horizon.

Last weekend we only had the one match up, at the Hive on Saturday versus the Telford Tigers.   This was always going to be a tough match up as both teams needed the win big time and I am very happy that we managed to pick up the win.   It was a low scoring but well disciplined performance and despite the low score an edgy game.   The whole team worked hard and put in a great effort and I felt we did enough to win the game a little more comfortably.   A great game from Tom Annett’s kept us in the match late on but we created more than enough opportunities to seal the win too.   Having the day off on Sunday came at a good time with our injury list – it gave those carrying knocks and bangs another day of recovery and came as a nice break for us ahead of what I’m sure will be another tough weekend.

This Saturday we hit the road again for the trip to Milton Keynes to face the Lightning.   MK is always a tough rink to go to and the Lightning are a solid home team and despite a couple of losses to the top teams recently they bounced back and got back to winning ways.   We will have to put in another solid road performance like we did against Peterborough a couple of weekends ago and keep up that never say die attitude in order to give ourselves a chance of coming away from MK with something to show.   The Lightning have had a tough time of it lately having won only one of their last six games – however it has been Manchester, Guildford and Sheffield who have defeated them.   We cannot however take them lightly, despite their recent record as I am sure they will be looking to get back to winning ways.

Sunday we return home to the Hive to face our fierce local rivals the Guildford Flames.   The Flames are the current league leaders and will without a doubt be a tough challenge, in all departments.   Our last two games against the Flames were both at the Hive over the festive period, both were close games which resulted in a loss and a penalty shot loss for us.   We will be looking to keep things tight against a team with a lot of offensive threats.   Discipline could be key – we cannot give a team like Guildford power play opportunities cheaply as they are too clinical.  We also cannot allow what has happened in previous match-ups to dictate things in this game. 

We have picked up a couple of really important victories lately and we need to continue to keep that form up going into this weekend’s two games.    Hopefully we should be back to full strength, or close to it, by the weekend which will of course help.   I have been happy with the performances recently and the form of Tom Annett’s has been great to see, especially coming back from his injury lay off.   The whole team though has been putting in a great effort recently, especially as we have been short of numbers for a while now too.

Finally for this week we would again like to say a big thank you to the Bee Army for another good night of support last week – despite the weather – it was great to see so many of your brave the elements and support the guys.   Can I ask that you continue to support us in your normal, loud and proud way – but let’s remember to keep the heat on the ice please. 

Coxy