Keeping In Touch At The Top Of The Table

Posted on Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 5:26 pm

Last weekend was certainly disappointing from our point of view. I can certainly say that things did not go to plan against Coventry. Losing two games back to back against our closest title challengers was a blow but we did manage to pick up a valuable point on Sunday night in Coventry despite our overtime loss. That point keeps us in touch at the top, two points behind the Coventry Blaze and level on points with the Nottingham Panthers.

Although we did experience two defeats, there are a bunch of positives that we can take from both games. I thought we were by far the better team in both games, dominating possession in long spells both at home and away from home. It was unfortunate that we found Coventry goalie, Peter Hirsch, in top form and he managed to bail his team out on both occasions. Scoring three goals at home and four away from home should be enough to win you games but you cannot expect to concede four and five, respectively, and come out on top.

Our first two games after Christmas see us come up against the Newcastle Vipers, first on 26th December and then at the Odyssey Arena the next night. Newcastle are the surprise team of the season so far and are sitting in the top five. They have found some very good imports forwards this year but they are built around their 4 import dmen and their goalie.

We take on the Sheffield Steelers on Wednesday 30th December. The Steelers had a very tough start to the season as they battled with some injuries and confidence problems. However, as proved by their Continental Cup feats, they are a very dangerous line up as they have strength and depth in all departments. I have no doubt that Dave Matsos will right their ship but we don’t want to be the team to help them find their direction!

Onto 2nd January and things don’t get any easier on ourselves, with the Cardiff Devils coming to town for the third time this season. Gerad Adams did a very good recruiting job and he has put together a Cardiff team that will be competing for trophies this season. They have been helped along by their new signing, Ryan Finnerty, whom we experienced firsthand when we lost in their rink a few weeks back in the first leg of our Challenge Cup semi final. We will need to be more defensively solid as a team in order to chalk up a win against them before the Devils visit on 20th January for the second leg.

Finally, I want to wish you all a very Happy Christmas, I hope you had a good one and I hope you have an even better New Year! The Christmas schedule is always manic and this year is no different, with us playing four games inside a week. The support we experienced against Coventry was fantastic and really got the guys going. Please keep it up, we need you guys to be our sixth man out there!

Steve Thornton
LBM Belfast Giants Player/Coach