Changing priorities

So then, how good was last weekend's hockey, eh? EH?!! I don’t mind admitting that from getting out of bed on the day of the Manchester game, I was nervous. Nervous in a way that I used to reserve solely for Sunderland vs Newcastle derby games.

I kept looking at my watch to see how long it was until we left for the rink. How long it was until face-off. How long until it’d all be over and we’d know the result. Would I be coming home afterwards on a massive high or low? Even I knew what a big game this was. The Mancs want our title, and we don’t want to give it up without a fight... ‘specially not to them. All that rubbish about G-Man and some ‘code’ after he DARED take on The Untouchable One (aka Tony Hand MBE....Mighty Big ‘Ead)

The Mancs have also signed a fine example of Neanderthal Man, better known as Andrew Sharp. Even TUO has admitted that he didn’t sign Mr Sharp for his playing ability, and I quote: “I’m not bringing him in for his skilful play. He’s tough and he’s willing to drop the gloves at any time. It will help the guys and give them a bit more confidence” Sorry? Can’t they just play a decent, skilful game of hockey and take their confidence from that? If they’re not doing well, they set their pet Rottweiler on the oppo?

As Saturday went on, the butterflies set in. I won a bottle of whisky in a raffle recently but it sat unopened – neither me nor hubby drink it (to be accurate, I can’t even stand the smell of the stuff since I drank rather a lot of it one night in Dalgety Bay a few years back) and crossed my mind to take it to the game and hand it around the rest of the behind-the-scenes team at the Thunderdome, help settle a few nerves!!

My preoccupation with Saturday’s game almost obliterated any concerns I might’ve had about my former love, football – and Sunderland facing Blackpool. I checked the score, wondered how Kieron Richardson suddenly got good, briefly hoped Blackpool wouldn’t equalise and that was that. How priorities change. Don't get me wrong - I'll never stop supporting Sunderland, I'm just out of love with football in general, but the manner of Darren Bent's departure recently didn't help. SAFC have been in my bloodstream too long to give up on them completely and theirs will always be the first result I look for on a Saturday afternoon....but it's not the sport it once was.

Got to the rink on Saturday night and the first reaction was just WOW....it was SO full, and this was with half an hour still before face off! Lots of people from my work were there – I’m always banging on about hockey rather than footy on a Monday morning (another change in priorities), now it was my colleagues' turn to see what a fantastic sport this is. But it was amazing to see the rink SO full...one of those moments when I was incredibly proud to be involved with MK Lightning.

The butterflies were in residence right until the first goal. Phoenix looked like they had every intention of giving our boys a full-on workout. They were confident on the puck, not afraid to pass it around. But as the first period went on, our boys got their teeth into the game and were first to score – and the butterflies disappeared. They must’ve escaped out when the cheer lifted the roof off Planet Ice!!

To summarise: there was no looking back after that. There was only a brief period of any concern when Kristofferson scored twice but there were no signs of panic from Nick and the lads – they kept calm and the win was theirs. Top of the league? You’re ‘aving a larff!! Absolutely magic....lots of happy supporters and lots of happy players in the bar afterwards – a change from the previous week when despite having stuffed Telford, the final whistle shenanigans seemed to leave them a bit flat.

I love Sundays: a proper lie-in, no dashing around, just enjoying being at home. But Sunday gone I found myself in the car with MKL’s ticketing lady Jan, her son, and Golly, all heading for Sheffield...all of us I think still on a high from the Manchester game. Sheffield’s a bloody long way away, Yorkshire for a start, half way back home to Sunderland and that’s a journey I don’t do often. But for the cause of supporting Lightning I gave up an afternoon at home – how times change! It was worth it though – good hockey craic in the car there and back, Jan and Golly helping with my hockey ‘education’, watching a Lightning game is NEVER time wasted, and a really good giggle during warm up: Jan told us it was Monir’s birthday and Jamie Line’s 21^st so she’d done some ‘happy birthday’ posters - and some praising Nick’s coaching. So while the guys were warming up we held them up to the plexi, and the looks on their faces were priceless!! Lukas tried to make out he wasn’t looking then couldn’t help laughing, Carrsy did a rubbish job of making it look like he hadn’t seen us, Farny looked mildly amused, Jamie looked a bit embarrassed at the attention and Nick read them, laughed, skated off, then did a double take and shook his head... They don’t call us 'Nick Poole's barmy army’ for nothing...

Back to work this week and a colleague was talking to me about Formula 1, my other long-term sporting love apart from football. I’ve followed F1 on and off since the mid 70’s and love it. My keyring is a McLaren one with earplugs in, I’m the Williams team’s official stalker and everything stops on Sunday afternoons when there’s a race on. But I had to admit to my colleague that I had no idea when ANY of the teams were launching this year’s cars or even when pre-season testing started - things that are normally tattoed on my mind. I normally get F1 close-season withdrawal symptoms but since the last season ended, the only sport I’ve really paid proper attention to is ice hockey. Blimey, this isn’t me!!

So supporting Lightning now takes priority over football and even F1 when it’s the close season, changing the habits of a lifetime. Not sure I’ll do every single Lightning away game as I need a bit of weekend calm occasionally, but I’ll sure as damn it be at our rink every home game!!

Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant

Yeah I know we’re done with Christmas now – is it only me that can’t believe it’s already the middle of flipping January and it feels like months since pulling crackers and watching The Sound of Music on telly? But the ‘joyful and triumphant’ bit pretty much sums up last weekend for Lightning supporters.

It started a few days before with the news we’d signed Blaz Emersic. Even though I’ve been following Lightning for about a year, I still count myself as something of a novice, but even I knew that Blaz was a bit of a hotshot for Slough and a damn fine player – the only surprise was that he was even available in the first place. I bet I wasn’t the only one wondering how our results would go with rumours that Monir could be out of action for weeks, but in one fell swoop that changed with news of Mr Emersic’s arrival. Bit of a shocker to see such a curt, ungracious statement on the Jets’ website about it – not a single word of thanks for the man who was such a major influence for them last season. Pete Russell’s now told one of the local rags there that he “couldn’t thank (Blaz) enough” and “what he’s done has been unbelieveable especially last year”. Rearrange these words into a well known phrase: horse, door, stable, shut, bolted.

Anyway in one weekend, our newest player has already started earning his keep. I got to the Thunderdome on Saturday to the not entirely unexpected news that Monir wasn’t icing pointing to Blaz getting his maiden outing for us. Impressive to see him make that debut in a shirt with his name and number on the back and national colours on the front, so soon after signing him (lets face it how many times have we seen a new signing icing with no name and/or number on their kit (Jonas Hoog for Swindon last month, anyone?) A nice touch, so well done to those responsible J

Having only a couple of days’ preparation you could’ve understood if Blaz looked like he was still getting to know the MK boys.......but come face-off time, it looked pretty much like he’d never played anywhere else, working with Britts to set up Smults for the first of four goals.

Lightning vs Phantoms is always worth seeing; the Phantoms can be inconsistent. Whilst they can be a bit lacklustre, they’re also perfectly capable of giving their oppo a fright. Last Saturday the rubbish version turned up and from the word go, didn’t look like they could be arsed. Not to take a single thing away from our boys though – they were firing on all cylinders and played a nice calm, composed passing game. Refusing to get flustered by anything Potty could be bothered to throw at them, and calmly got on with the job of ramming their last defeat of us right back down their throats. 4-0.......job done.

Actually while I’m rambling about Potty, a mention for the right honourable horrible James Morgan. I’ve been told about his history with MK so I think I’m up to speed with why Lightning supporters hold him in such high regard....or not. And it was funny watching Nick mouthing off at Morgs on the ice while the rest of us mouthed off at him from behind the safety of the plexi...the poor love must hate coming to MK (hopefully). Although apparently he wasn’t that fond of coming here when he played for us..... Anyway I digress. My point being: how come Morgs looks SO consistently dead behind the eyes? Initially I thought he was giving an icy stare to the MKL supporters then I realised that his lights were on but nobody was home. You’d expect to see at least an occasional flicker of consciousness in two hours. Mind you, he DID fall over without any assistance from absolutely anyone last week so maybe not.

I coughed all the way through the Potty game and had a rough night, felt fairly sub-standard on Sunday morning and I admit to pondering not going to Guildford that afternoon. Nah....gotta be done. It was always going to be a match worth seeing - Lightning on a roll and Guildford arguably in a wobbly patch.

By the time we got to the Spectrum I realised why Jez Tibbetts hates the M1 and M25 so much. I’ve lived ‘daaahn saath’ for 24 years and I’m sure there’s been a 50mph limit on our bit of the M1 for most of that time, and there was more on the M25. Thankfully the Spectrum is easy to find though, unlike iceSheffield which was a bit of a magical mystery tour (thank God for Google Maps for iphone).

I’m rubbish at guesstimating attendances so I’ll leave it at saying we had a good number of supporters down there, loud and proud. We outsang the Flames supporters for the whole game and it was a superb, a really cracking atmosphere, brilliant banter and chants as always. Very funny when at 5-0 up we sang “We want six!” and the Flames lot finally woke up and sang “We want one!!” I’ve always wondered if our lads on the ice can make out what we’re singing or are they too busy concentrating on their game? (ha’way lads tell us!)

To summarise: Lightning made Guildford look VERY ordinary. I know I’m biased but if a complete novice (even more than me) wandered in, I don’t think they’d have identified the Flames as being 2^nd in the league. The boys were 2-0 up in 3 minutes and I wondered if I was hallucinating from too much Lucozade and paracetemol. Only 3 minutes into the second period and Blaz popped his MKL scoring cherry and we all went a little bit delirious.....WHAT a signing he’s turned out to be already!! Matty celebrated his goal by turning straight towards us all and cheering with us, and Grant had a fight that I don’t think many of us saw. Despite Guildford looking like they might’ve had a reviving cuppa in the first period break, the effect didn’t last and it was another straightforward win for the boys in black. A four point weekend – beating our local rivals AND one of the league frontrunners in the process – it doesn’t get much better! Thankyou Lightning, you made a lot of people very happy this weekend, and I bet we all hope you had a party on the way home J

So this weekend we face Telford in a double-header and while it’d be tempting fate to take anything for granted, fingers crossed that all will be well (I’m saying nowt else or it’ll all be my fault if it goes pear-shaped).

Let’s go Lightning!!!!!!!

'Frustration' and other Christmas games!

Hello and a belated Happy New Year – hope everyone had a great festive period and the snow didn’t spoil too many plans (but HOW good was it to have a proper white Christmas eh?!) I must’ve been good last year, as Santa brought me a Lightning away shirt!

Such a long break between Lightning games over Christmas was frustrating; quite ironic that a game believed to have originated in Canada was called off just because the weather got a bit Canadian!! I had visions of Nick, Monir, Smults and Lukas, looking out of their respective front windows at what must’ve seemed to them like a mere dusting of snow, and probably wondering what all the fuss was about! Peterborough import Chris Allen said recently if it snows overnight before a game in Canada, the team will go out in the wee small hours and shift what they can of the snow around the rink...hmmm, an idea for next time this happens?!!

I went back to the north east for a few days during the break to catch up with family and enjoy a sporting fix. Firstly, an EIHL game, Newcastle Vipers v Hull Stingrays. We’d seen them in October and it was absolutely dire...neither side particularly impressed, a very scrappy match, little in the way of atmosphere or support. I wore the same layers this time that keep me toasty warm at Lightning games, and even a hat. But I could’ve done with another few layers, another pair each of gloves and socks, a balaclava and probably a water bottle and electric blanket. Not to put too fine a point on it, it was feckin freezing in there...took me literally HOURS to warm up again properly afterwards!

The Vipers’ recent appeal for supporters to turn out in numbers had obviously hit a chord as there was a much bigger, more vocal crowd than when we last went. And the team themselves had much more about them because this certainly wasn’t the bore-fest it was last time. The Stingrays’ bus suffered a puncture en route and they’d arrived late, getting only 10 minutes on the ice to warm up, and I wondered if it would work against them. The home team put up a fight and for the first two periods they stayed in contention – but far from the lack of warm up time being a hindrance, it didn’t seem to bother the Stingrays; in the final period they put their foot on the gas and left with all the points.

But despite the improvement on our previous visit there, as Andy pointed out it was relatively poor for their league. And I admit he had a good point. One of the things I love about watching Lightning is the skill you see from our players – selling oppo players a dummy pass, the lightning-fast turns and flicks to get away from your oppo, etc – and it was fair to say there was nowhere near as much in the Vipers game. So while it was good to get a hockey fix, it was frustrating not to enjoy it anywhere near as much as I enjoy going to Lightning games. And I suppose it’s never as good when it’s not your ‘home’ team.

The following day, I had a catch-up with Sunderland AFC at their home game against Premiership newbies Blackpool. The omens weren’t good, post Christmas shopping traffic giving us a parking nightmare even though we’d set off in good time, and a mix-up when booking the seats meant we were on row 1, so you don’t get a fantastic perspective of the whole pitch. Sunderland came out firing on all cylinders and it looked like it’d be a case of when, not IF, the first goal came. Shot after shot was fired at the Blackpool goal but none went in – I was convinced there was an invisible forcefield around their goal. Blackpool succeeded where Bent, Gyan and Co couldn’t....we couldn’t lose to this lot, surely...??? How could I show my face at work having lost to bloody Blackpool??! Blackpool scored again at the end of normal time....and that was that. Four minutes of extra time was awarded, but we didn’t look like scoring if we’d played for another four days. We left, cold and frustrated for the second day in a row.

While I’d been away I’d kept a ‘weather eye’ on press coverage of Lightning as part of my new role, and it was great to see some profile-boosting stuff for the club. One of the papers in Swindon even picked up on our view that the near three week lay-off between games was a good thing as it gave our guys more time to rest and heal from injuries – and they’d countered it with Swindon coach Ryan Aldridge’s view that Lightning might be a little rusty so they'd take advantage if we were. Fighting talk! We’d see who was right, soon enough.

It was fantastic to get back to the rink after such a long mid-season gap – and what a fantastic, really noisy crowd had turned out for both sides!! It was a real pleasure to be there with such a great atmosphere which kept up all through the game – a real credit to both sets of supporters, and long may it continue. Having read on the MKIH forums that Grant wasn’t expected back until mid-January earliest, it was a lovely surprise to see him on the ice and ready for action again.

Certainly at first, it seemed like Ryan Aldridge just might’ve been right – Swindon looked determined not to be a pushover despite some dodgy recent results, and pushed Lightning every step of the way - punishing missed passes and any hint of hesitation, plus their keeper Disco Douglas was on top form, determined not to let anything past him. And for the first period he succeeded, as did Mettsey – 0-0 after 20 minutes.

The frustration continued in the second period when Swindon scored early - but Lukas evened it up only four minutes later with a powerplay goal, stoking up the atmosphere even more! Lightning came back more and more in the final period and played an increasingly physical game, but at the end of 60 minutes it was still a stalemate and overtime beckoned. Thankfully high-scoring Smults was the hero of the hour, ending the evening’s frustration and sending the home fans away very, very happy!

The following evening at Manchester wasn’t a good result for the boys; Monir was out injured so our strikeforce wasn’t as potent – and to be fair, last season Lightning were the team on form – this season it’s the Mancs, and better teams than us will lose to them before the season’s out. But the only way to deal with nights like that is look firmly forward: this Saturday we face local rivals Peterborough, and the bragging rights are up for grabs. Here’s hoping none of us leave the Thunderdome frustrated after that match!!