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Hitting the road
by Mark Duell
These last few weeks I have been doing something I really couldn’t do much of last season, and that is watching the Steelers on the road. Last season due to my commitments with running a football team, I was only able to watch the guys in Belfast but this season I have doubled the amount of trips this season and we aren’t even in December yet! Of the nine road trips, two teams have been visited and I have already confirmed a third with a fourth, fifth and sixth looking good possibilities too. Who knows I may have completed the entire set this year if I am lucky.
Road trip number one was a short hop across to East Yorkshire and to the Hull Arena for a Challenge Cup game. Normally I wouldn’t have bothered about going, but I had nothing better to do that Saturday night so arrangements were finalised with Doncaster based Steelers fan Andy Smith to provide the transport. It was to prove an inspired decision, and worth doing.
The thing about the rink in Hull is that it reminds me so much in size of Ice Sheffield. The capacity isn’t great, I think it only holds 2,000 people at a push (perhaps a Stingrays fan can confirm this?) but it has a good feel to it with the crowd very close the action. Hull had nothing to play for that night but pride as they were already eliminated from the Challenge Cup, but like most teams do - they raised their game against us. Well, a win against a local rival is always good in anyone’s book regardless of sport.
What Hull have in their side is a team that never gives up, and will not roll over for anyone. I guess it all stems from their player-coach Sylvain Cloutier, who is a born winner from his days at Coventry (two Elite League titles bear testament to this) and it’s a mentality that “Cloots” will install in his charges. Yet boy did they give us a game, it was just a shame that people of Hull didn’t turn up as much as I they would have done for it. 1-0 Hull at the end of the first, Steelers fight back to lead 2-1 with just four minutes left and you would have thought that was that as Hull were probing with little reward.
However, read what I said about the coach and you can guess what happened next. Yeah, Cloutier levelled the scores with a neat finish after being left free on his own. Realising that a draw was no use to us, the guys then launched wave after wave of attacks on Christian Boucher in the Stingrays net, hoping for that one lucky break. The lucky break did come, and with it a sense of relief. Yet the timing was also important, it came with just TEN seconds to go! Enough to deflate the Stingrays and secure the two points on offer, thank you much very Neil Clark! The trip back was a happy one but we’d left it late.
Road trip number two came just last weekend, at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow. This is a rink in the most unusual of settings, it’s part of the big massive shopping complex. Yeah, I can’t ever see the Steelers play in Meadowhall. But what a cracking atmosphere and some absolutely top notch fans too. I have developed a few good friendships with some of their fans and to be fair you can’t top that. From arriving, Doug (one such fan) went to the bar and got me a beer in without question. The others proved to be just as charming and left such a positive impression on me that I have already said I will be returning before the season. Thanks also for the badge Doug, you didn’t have to do what you did but my respect for you increased ten-fold after that.
The game was a keenly contested one, with the middle period being the crucial one as it always is in games. From a scoreless first to us leading 4-0, the game was as good as over and you could see it in the Clan’s players eyes as they went off with just the third to play. Only a massive collapse of enormous proportions would stop us from coming away with a very important road win. It certainly is a hard place to win as teams such as Cardiff, Nottingham and Belfast have come unstuck there before. But for their fans, the Clan didn’t hoist up the white flag and surrender completely. Two goals for Mike Bayrack and it finished 4-2 in our favour. As for the ejection of Bruce, well it spilt everyone’s opinions and I am not here to fan the flames of controversy.
So that’s two trips done with as I said. I have Belfast to undertake in March and before that I have plans afoot to visit Coventry, Cardiff and the Panthers. Suppose I best start looking at trips to Fife, Dundee and Edinburgh. But that’s for another day. Who knows where I may end up next? KHL I hear you say, why not if I can find the funds first to go. More thoughts to come soon, but I can always be followed also on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/hockeybhoy
Yours in hockey,
Mark
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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4-5 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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- Adam Walker
- Alex Birch
- Andy Pierce
- Chris Gent
- Christopher Beal
- Craig Simpson
- Dave Simms
- Elliott Stanley
- Gareth Chalmers
- James Broughton
- James Gordon
- Katy Madgwick
- Luke Catterson
- Mark Briggs
- Mark Duell
- Mat Young
- Patrick Smyth
- Promotion
- Russ Morrell
- Seanna Murdock
- Stephen Dowson
- Stewart Roberts
- Tom Forster
- Vicki Smart
- William Lyon
