LONDON , UK – Disappointingly my physiotherapist doesn’t answer to the name of Heidi and nor does she hail from Stockholm. Instead I walk in to my first session to be confronted with an aggressive looking South African man who has a wry smile on his face as he introduces me to a whole world of pain. Still injured and getting ever more depressed is a succinct way of summing me up right now.
Another man seemingly destined for a new world of pain is new Haringey Greyhounds coach Sergey Smollenko who could only stand and watch as his team were taken apart on their own ice by a rampant Chelmsford. Whilst the Greyhounds started ok, the floodgates soon opened and hat tricks from Danny Hammond and Darren Brown contributed to a 12-1 demolition. It is hard to see how Sergey can turn things around but the return of forward Stas Profokiev will help.
In a similar situation to Haringey are the Peterborough Islanders who continued their woeful start to the season by getting thrashed 12-0 in Wales by Cardiff. The Welsh side clearly on a roll with Tim Burrows getting a hat trick. The Islanders were apparently short benched for the trip which seems to be a bit of a trend for teams travelling to Cardiff? Perhaps it’s the bridge toll?
The only other hiding dished out this weekend was by the Bracknell Hornets who took apart the visiting Milton Keynes Thunder 13–2 on Saturday.
Proving the theory of home advantage, Milton Keynes managed to reduce the score line to a 7-4 defeat 24 hours later in the Thunder dome. It was Bracknell’s first four point weekend and this was much needed after last weeks defeat in Cardiff. Thunder coach Lewis Clifford will be hoping his teams away form improves quickly.
The highlight game of the weekend was in Oxford where a resolute City Stars side took an early advantage over the Wightlink Raiders only to see the Isle of Wight side come back to win 4-2. The game was notable for rough tactics of Raiders defence man Kev Tanner who decided to jump on Stars captain Darren Elliott. Despite raining a number of punches down on the turtled Oxford man, Tanner was only assessed a 2+2 penalty by referee Rene Ross. Tanner is a curious personality and I remember the first time I saw him playing for Solent a number of years ago. Solent’s goalie was late and the warm up had already started. I remember looking down the ice to see a player in normal kit with a half visor on, standing between the pipes as his team mates fired pucks at him. Bizarrely he actually was trying to save slap shots with his gloves! A talented but crazy player is probably an accurate description of Mr Tanner.
I have to confess at this point that I didn’t attend our game against Invicta at the High road as I was smelling tulips and looking at windmills in Holland this weekend. By all accounts it was a familiar story of a short benched home side battling against three lines of good players. We lost 8-2 but the main talking point was James Tanner’s first period save to deny Karl Lennon. Even Spoursy (the Streatham coach and former top flight goalie himself) felt the need to comment on it:
‘I personally have been involved in hockey since 1978 and so have see some great goalies in my time and some great saves too, but one save in particular from James Tanner just blew me away’
The only other point of note was an injury to Invicta’s David Oliver who was taken to hospital after a heavy hit. David trained with me at Haringey last year briefly and he was a good guy and a capable player. Hopefully he recovers soon and didn’t see anyone attack a vending machine like I did on my last 4 hour bore fest in a London A&E.
I think the league is shaping up pretty much as predicted. It is sad to see the established ENL sides such as ourselves, Peterborough, Haringey and MK succumbing to heavy defeats but equally it is up to those teams to step up and fight back. We all want a competitive league and I have always had the opinion that moaning about better teams in the league is ridiculous. Invicta have always had a strong team but they are not invincible. We beat them numerous times when I played for the Stars in Oxford a few years ago, and had we shown the same intensity and desire in games against the other teams, we would have challenged the Dynamos for the title.
Much like Happy Gilmore did, the underdogs in the league need to get their game sorted and climb up the leader board. Make the big boys eat sh*t for breakfast once in a while.
Thanks for reading and stay safe,
Carrsy
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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