The regular season is now over for the Solent Devils, and the club have finished 6th in NIHL league one.
“This is our highest ever league finish, and I am very happy with the team’s performance this year”, said Devils head coach, Alex Murray, “the team have shown an improvement year on year, and that has been proven by some of the results this season.”
Devils captain, Alex Cole also echoed this by saying “At the start of the season, we wanted to improve on last year’s position. The six point weekend against Streatham and Oxford helped, but it has been a sustained effort throughout the year.”
While the Devils may have lost sixteen of their thirty six games this year, the only team that the Devils didn’t beat this season were league winners Chelmsford. “Taking points from everyone but Chelmsford, shows we are a stable team in this league and deserve to be here” said Murray.
While the team are obviously proud of their standing this year, there have obviously been some difficult times. “It’s hard not to look back at where we have conceded goals late in games, especially where those goals took away wins in the final minute”, Cole said, “We, as a team, have had to learn some lessons from this, and it is something we have been working on.”
As well as troubles on the ice, every member of the team has had an injury to some extent this year. Defenceman Ben Lock, has missed several games this season due to a knee injury, Jamie Fitzpatrick, who took a puck in the face while on the bench and required a trip to A&E. Cole himself, suffering with his own injuries missed games, and Murray – who would prefer to play as a forward, but has been in defence almost all year – has received a few big hits himself (one resulting in a broken jaw and surgery the following day).
Being this short of defenders, has a knock on effect to the forwards. Obvious ones, such as Mitch Murray dropping back to defence for the last few games of the season, reduce fire power in front of the goal, but other effects include disruption to the established lines. Players get used to playing together, so when one of them gets moved to another line it takes time for the players to adjust.
While the season is barely over, and the playoff games are still looming, there is already talk of next season. Cole said “Some of the guys will be moving on next year, and I will be sad to see them go. Everyone is close, there is a lot of respect amongst the team, and everyone backs everyone else up.”
Murray too, has thoughts on the inevitable loss of players over the summer “Due to the success of the team, other clubs will be looking to pick up some of our players. This is a pay to play club, and if some of our players can move on, as long as it is progression I will be happy for them.”
Both Murray and Cole want to keep the established core of the team they have built up, and are already looking to see where they can bolster the ranks and add to the team. One of the problems – as Murray mentioned – is that the Devils are a pay to play club, and players are often tempted to bigger clubs by having their playing fees covered, being able to claim expenses, or even the possibility of a small income. The biggest way to change this, is to attract sponsors to the club. “We are very grateful to our sponsors this year, and without them, we wouldn’t have been able to play as we have”, Murray said. This doesn’t mean that the Devils don’t need more sponsors, which means Murray and the back office staff are already gearing up to spend the summer trying to get the financial support which will help them continue to improve next season.
First, however, there are the two playoff games against Wightlink Raiders. Saturday night, the Devils will be traveling across The Solent, and Sunday they will play the home leg back in Gosport. All the Devils, would love to see as many fans as possible at both games, and would like to thank their fans for all the support this season. One of the big messages that comes from the team is, when the fans start cheering them on, it really does get them going and makes them want to perform all the more, just to make the fans proud.
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