SWINDON, UK – Week 13 and no update for the Top Ten Charts is possible because not enough information has been provided, and to go through every gamesheet wouldn’t be so bad if they were all made available.
But, it sounded like trouble ’t mill for the Wildcats as Ryan Watt walked out. According to Coach Aldridge the 21-year-old forward had been unsettled from the beginning of the season and despite changing his playing line several times he just wasn’t comfortable.
Aldridge said of the departure: “I don’t think it will be massive loss.”
An understandable comment as this is not the first time Watt has had this sort of trouble having had eleven moves in seven year and either walked out or been asked to leave several clubs in the past notably Bracknell, from where he is currently banned, Slough from where he was dropped last season, and Swindon no less where Pete Russell dismissed him prior to Aldridge’s tenure.
So it was something of a surprise when not just the Jets, but Russell himself signed him up again with the statement the best is yet to come, something we have heard several times before concerning the mercurial player and, in fact reiterated by Aldridge.
Russell explained, “Ryan contacted me and said he was leaving Swindon. I believe I can get more consistency out of him, and so does he.”
So we can only hope Russell is able to unlock and focus the full talent that Watt clearly has. Oddly enough, it reminded me of something my old grand-pappy used to say: ‘If your best stud bull isn’t performing, make sure the next time you need his services you first of all stand in front of him and tap together the two biggest concrete blocks you can carry so when you go behind him he recognises the sound.’
To make way for Watt, the Jets released British forward Scott Spearing with the comment from Russell: ‘I felt we needed something a bit different, and more offence.’ Watt achieved fifteen points from 21 games with the Wildcats, so that is the ‘more consistency’ to beat.
On a more positive note the Wildcats welcomed the return of leading scorer Slovakian Jozef Liska who has been troubled and re-troubled with a shoulder injury which has disrupted his season. Coach Aldridge said it was, ‘a massive boost.’
And while we are being positive, it was nice to see Spearing immediately snapped up by the Bees, his former team. Coach Cox confessed to an interest in Ryan Watt which would have raised an interesting situation. On the one hand it would have reunited the Watt brothers because, of course, Nicky is already in Bracknell and Ryan declared prior to this season a desire to play with his brother one day. But more interestingly, Ryan is banned from the Bracknell rink rumoured to be for some after hours antics which no one would talk about last season, so you have to wonder how they would have overcome that other than waiting until the ban had run its course.
Also on the move was British forward Mark Turner and Slovakian Matej Kangyar who were both released by the Steeldogs and which goes to show what the club thinks of new-signing Andre Payette. Or, to put it succinctly as Coach Darlow did: ‘He can be the catalyst that allows the Steeldogs to settle down and play the type of hockey we all know is within the team.’
And while we are engrossed in this bonhomie let’s mention Adam Greener of the Jets who said of last week’s win against the Phoenix followed by defeat by the Steeldogs: ‘We did all the work against Manchester and then we , unfortunately, ran into Ben Bowns, who had a really good game against us.’ What a damned decent thing to say, so perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear Tom Carlon at the Phantoms adding his bit with the comment that, ‘…playing alongside Jeff Glowa it is easy to look good. As far as I am concerned,’ he said, ‘he is the heartbeat of the team. He makes me a better player.’
Then Phantoms’ captain Dwayne Newman called the team the ‘star’ of the show after defeating the Lightning, and new-signing Chris Allen came out with the news that although on a temporary contract to replace the injured Darius Lelenas, he would be happy to stay on. ‘If the club comes to me to talk about extending, I would be happy to talk,’ he said.
Ahhh, what lovely things to say and almost makes me want to send a teddy bear to Andrew Sharpe who I might have implied a while back was less than a warm and cuddly person.
What we need is more pessimism and Bison’s coach Steve Moria almost provided a teeny edge in his comments about the coming games, the Bison 9-game winning streak, and a depleted team. ‘It is going to be tough with three guys out of the line up.’ Yes, well, Chris Wiggins and Rick Skene injured and Ciaran Long on GB duty so not bad, but keep going. ‘But I still feel we can take the points in both games.’
Darn!
However, the Bison addressed the problem by signing Nathan Taylor and Robbie Brown from Wightlink on a temporary deal.
So how about the resurrected story of Coach Nick Poole retiring? About a year ago Poole told Lightning skipper Adam Carr, ‘I am definitely getting near to retirement. I’ve got a job to do and probably in the coaching role.’ Local radio for some reason dug it up and now, a year on, the spot light is again on Poole who actually is a youngster at 37 compared to Tony Hand at 43 and Steve Moria at 49, or even Nicky Chinn at 38.
Saturday evening and all games were interesting and/or important. Take the Flames at Manchester, for instance, where the Guildford team got off to a strong start for once through two Nathan Rempel goals and looked set to take the points until Sharp pulled things equal fifteen minutes from time with his first EPL goal. Then things went into overdrive with one more goal apiece and then Curtis Huppe grabbing the winner and sending the Phoenix back to the top of the league table.
Also important was the Wildcats hosting, and subsequently losing, to the Phantoms, which means with eight straight loses they are now within the grasp of the Steeldogs. In fact, there were some positives for the Swindon team compared to their recent performances, like actually outshooting their opponents and another being new signing James Knight bagging two points.
The Steeldogs and Tigers took part in another important game. Although the Steeldogs must have been feeling confident after last week’s victory over the Jets, in a close-fought encounter it was the Tigers who were one up going into the first break, and looking to have the edge. But by half way they were three-two down and even with Andrejs Maslovskis missing a penalty it had the promise of ending up close with a barrel of goals and in the final fierce few minutes Tom Watkins got his marching orders and the Steeldogs ran out six to four winners, and a short snatch away from the Wildcats above them.
The Bison continued their charge with another win, but Bracknell were far from a pushover. In fact it was the Bees who were first on the score board in just two minutes thanks to Tom Avery and then pulled away with a one from James Galazzi. But, in the second half of the second period with the Bison then at full power Nicky Chinn opened the Bison account with Steve Moria adding the equaliser almost immediately. Fifteen minutes from time Ollie Bronniman got the winner, but although the Bison clocked up win number ten, they did not have it all their own way.
The Jets went to Milton Keynes and Darius Pliskauskas took them into the lead by the first break. A delayed penalty two minutes into the second and Doug Sheppard had the Jets two up. Then, for ten minutes around the half way mark the Lightning mounted an impressive comeback first through Monir Kalgoum (some say Adam Brittle) with Nick Poole putting the Lightning on equal footing which is how it stayed until fifteen minutes from the end when Sheppard got the winner on a power-play.
Sunday, and no games for the Wildcats or Steeldogs and with Coach Russell away with the GB team Slough’s Michael Bowman put on the coach’s hat. Visiting Bison went two up by the first break in a game that got increasingly scrappy, and although two goals from Sheppard and a superior number of shots on goal, the Jets couldn’t recover completely from a third period Viktor Kubenko goal and force the overtime.
The remaining three games were all one-sided affairs and, I hate to say it, don’t do a lot for the sport in my book. You can’t criticize a team for trying to win, of course, and without losers you can’t have winners. And there will always be landslide victories, but repeated one-sided games are depressing for fans, must be demoralising for losing players and clubs, and even for top players like Jaroslav Cesky and Michal Pinc in lowly Bracknell they must yearn for more challenging games. In a sense they are hollow victories anyway, as formulae 1 has proved there is little kudos in McLaren beating Virgin or Hispania.
However, the Phantoms gave the Flames a run for their money for a period before capsizing 3-7 although they did mount a spirited fight back with goals from Tom Carlon and Warren Tait in the third.
The Bees went to Milton Keynes with a short bench, but the addition of new-signing Scott Spearing. Lightning’s first goal came after seven minutes but they outshot the Bees almost three to one who didn’t score their first until fifteen minutes from time when it was all over anyway although they did manage to rein in the shots differential.
The Phoenix dismantled the Tigers, although to the credit of the Telford team it wasn’t a shut-out and they were without Tom Watkins, but even Curtis Huppe’s third hat-trick of the season doesn’t really invoke much enthusiasm, unless you are a Manchester fan, I guess, for a game which does little to promote the sport.
So apart from the Phoenix and Steeldogs benefiting from the weekend’s results, the Phantoms moved a tad closer to the Lightning and then slipped back with Sunday’s fixtures, so little change over the rest of the weekend.
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Contact the author Bill.Coollins@Prohockeynews.com
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