EPL Weekly Roundup 02

SWINDON, UK –   Newswise Week 2 was possibly one of the quietest of the year although there were a couple of interesting snippets.
Take, for instance, the Phoenix winning overtime goal against the Bison on Sunday attributed to Tony Hand who, by his own explanation, was a tad perplexed by his own success. The goal came early in the overtime period from a face-off and, in fact, one of the photos capturing his victory moment had a distinct ‘Who, me?’ flavour to it. A few days later Hand cleared the matter up with the explanation Bison’s Steve Moria had in fact ‘won the draw-back too clean’ and stuck the puck in his own net. Tragedy for the Bison, of course, because it cost them the game, and small consolation for the fact there are no own-goals in our sport.  
Following last Sunday’s defeat by the Steeldogs, the third game in as many days for the Wildcats and a situation already observed as ‘not normal’ by GM Steve Nell, Coach Ryan Aldridge added his voice to the complaint. ‘Three games in three days is very, very tough,’ he said, ‘there’s no doubt about that, especially when you’re missing players.’ However, Nell also went on to add he thought his side’s improvements during the summer would contribute to a more exciting league this season where, ‘…you have eight or nine teams that could beat each other on any night.’ In other words, just the sort of thing we fans are looking forward to.
While still reeling from the Tigers’ defeat Guildford boss Paul Dixon said his side’s performance was, ‘inexcusable,’ adding, ‘we definitely fell short of this roster’s potential.’
Which brings us on to Saturday and the Flames opponents in Peterborough where captain Geoff Glowa said Phantoms’ fans should expect a change in style which he felt would be more successful with the emphasis on ‘collective team defence.’
But not tonight, boyo, because the Flames were much more settled than last week and took the lead at home to the Phantoms after just a minute and kept hacking away for a full hour through a variety of scorers, including two from Rick Plant. Unfortunately for the Phantoms, who can ill-afford to lose a player, Erik Bochna was taken off injured following a hard hit and the Flames went on to reach seven a couple of minutes from the end but thanks to Maris Ziedins didn’t quite catch the shut-out.
Another change occurred in Milton Keynes where the Lightning captain Adam Carr said of the impending game against the Phoenix, ‘You couldn’t pick a better fixture to start our season.’  And he was right. The Lightning league campaign started with a sterling performance which by the half way point had put the visiting Phoenix firmly in their place three goals adrift. Then a couple of things happened. First Tony Hand picked up a ten-minute misconduct for abuse of an official shortly followed by a Tom Duggan goal which made you wonder if this was the turning point. But it wasn’t as almost immediately Lukas Zatopec stuck in his second and while Ben Wood converted a penalty shot for the Phoenix Nick Poole replied with his second to seal things at 5-2.
Yet more change occurred in Slough where the visiting Bees faced the Jets for the forth time in two weeks with three wins under their belts. While the home side took the lead, it was only for a few minutes and by the end of the first period it was still equal at 2-all, and the visitors were only a goal behind when Adam Calder completed his hat-trick seconds from the second break. In the final period the Jets stepped up a gear and a forth from Calder nine minutes from time closed the lid on the Bees for the Jets’ first win against Bracknell.
One team for which things didn’t change much was the Wildcats who took the Tigers apart for their second meeting in the league and the forth time in two weeks. Following the victory over the Flames last week the Tigers must be bitterly disappointed not to have showed stronger having demonstrated they were capable of containing the Swindon side at times.
Tigers’ coach Tom Watkins had said of the Swindon team, ‘There is a lot of talent in their dressing room, but we haven’t played anywhere near our best against them.’ And neither did they this time as the Wildcats produced a much stronger team effort with Jonus Hoog completing the first hat-trick in the league to win it for the Wildcats 8-1 with time to spare.
In Basingstoke Coach Moria said of his opponents, the Steeldogs, ‘Sheffield are a strong all-round balanced unit,’ and although the Bison continued their strong opening to the season it was the Steeldogs who started the scoring through Andre Payette and it took the home side nearly half an hour to equalise. But by the end of the second they had taken the lead and lost it, so things were still equal as the battle went into the third when, after six minutes, Joe Miller put the Bison back in front where they stayed to end the affair 3-2. But, again the Steeldogs showed they are going to be a far different side from last year. Their coach, Andre Payette, having said of his previous four-point weekend, ‘It was a fantastic way to start a league campaign,’ must have been a little peeved not to at least have picked up another point.  
Moria also said about Sunday’s opponents, the Bees, ‘I am expecting another difficult game.’ And difficult it was after the first three minutes by which time the home team were two-up. Then, Chris Wiggins and Scott Spearing found a mutual attraction for the Military Two Step which saw the Bison player ejected and the Bees settle back into the game. By the half-way mark it was still pretty close although the Bess had by then taken the lead. From then on it was almost a rout with Rob Lamey and Martin Masa eventually snagging a pair apiece leaving the Bison wondering what had happened to their strong start to the campaign.
Also wondering what happened must be the Lightning who after putting the Phoenix to bed the previous night woke up in Sheffield to find the Steeldogs sitting at the foot of the bed smiling like the Mad Axeman. In the first fifteen minutes the home side were two-up and Thomas Jeffery had been ejected for spearing. Leigh Jamieson pulled one back for the Lightning just after the half hour but then the Steeldogs went on their merry way with a second from Janis Ozolins and Payette limping off with a puncture just before the end.
The Flames also had something of a merry way clocking up another seven goals, so that’s fourteen over the weekend, as they stuffed the Tigers into a sack starting with two goals inside the first three minutes. But things all there own way, it wasn’t, because Neil Liddiard and Andy McKinney went ‘heel for heel and  toe for toe’ and early in the second period the Tigers were still only a goal behind although they finished it with an ejection from Marie’s wedding and two goals against them which was really the start of the end.
In Manchester, the Wildcats played doggedly, or shouldn’t that be cattily, and kept things even for a period. Early in the second Martin Cingel started the ball rolling and added his second six minutes later, but the Wildcats pulled one back just before then end of the second. So the final stint was all to play for and it was the Wildcats who brought things even closer with a goal early on. But the last quarter-hour was not enough for them to break through although the weekend has clearly shown the Phoenix will not be getting things all their own way this time out.   
The Phantoms, having conceded seven goals the night before faced the Jets in an uncompromising mood after their revenge over the Bees. Although the first period was equal with credit due to Greg Rockman who proved an ample guard of the Jets’ goal, it was the away side which pulled away in the second period only to be roped back in to keep things on an equal footing. The third was all Jets, well, almost because Ryan Watt missed a penalty shot, not that it distracted Alex Symonds scoring right from the face-off with number seven. That made fourteen goals for the weekend although, in fact, it was a strong effort from a depleted Phantoms side icing basically just two lines.
So lots of goals and some interesting results already on the table, and who would have thought the Steeldogs would be leading the league table? But, of course, next week is, well, the week after this one and as the Flames showed it can make a world of difference to scorelines.
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