A bit of a moan.

Yes, I'm going to have a bit of a moan.

So, after the Menace wa sholding up some silly, humorous signs behind Hull players in the penalty box last night, the 'bitching brigade' pop up on the forum and revive an old thread about his 'antics'.

'It shows a lack of class', 'We should be friendly', etc.

Well boo-fucking-hoo. I don't think it shows a lack of 'class'. Its a bit of harmless fun. Nowt more. By all means, if a opposition player complains, stop doing it, otherwise, carry on. It all adds to the entertainment factor.

And as for being freindly... fuck off. I want us to be intimidating. Not just the players on the ice, but the fans as well. Not to the extent we develop a reputaion such as that held by Coventry and sections of the Sqeelers, but enough to make the opposition feel uncomfortable in the Dome. One of my worst nightmares is returning to the old Storm days of 'We don 't boo the opposition, we just cheer louder for our team' bollocks.

We need to make the Dome a fortress. Teams should worry about coimng there to play us.

So, if you don't like it, tough. If the club backs down I will be seriously dissapointed in them, and trust me, I'll let Neil know.

round up time

So, I have been a little tardy this week, not doing a round up of the Belfast game, so here it is:

Briefly, this was a cracking game. Sky in attendance, decent sized crowd, and an agonisingly narrow loss, in the last 30 seconds of the game. Gutted. solid performance though.

Now to this weeks game.

We beat a flat looking Hull side without ever getting out of 2nd gear really. 5-0 is a hell of a score to run up without even trying. If we had actually turned on the gas we could have easily got to double figures without a doubt.

Having said that, it was a soild way to bounce back after 3 defeats on the trot, a run of games that brought out all the miserable doom mongers over on the forum, claiming that the season was done with, etc. For fucks sake, it was 3 games. If we lost 5 or 6 on the trot, then by all means complain, but we were without our starting NM and main play maker for 2 of them, and the other was a narrow loss (see above). You just can't please some people it seems.

Other bits:

The crowd last night was disapointing. Yes, I know it was a Saturday, and Man U were on the telly, but still... less than 1000 in the building (I'd hazard a guess at about 700). I know that the opposition would ahve been part of this. Hull just are not the kind of 'draw' taht Notts, or shuff are, but the large number of empty seats were still sad to see.

The VIP Lounge is starting to fill up nicely as well, both before and after the games. If you haven't been down there yet, please do so. You can even find me and say 'Hi!' (or give me some earache if you prefer).

Also, it looks like we may have a winner for the pre-game pub. Uluru is ticking most of the boxes at the minute. Beer on tap? Check. Nice atmosphere? Check. Sky Sports? Check. You will find me and a couple of others in there from around 3.30 on most gamedays. Come join us.

And thats yer lot. I'm off to listen to Chinese Democracy now. 14 years is a fucking long wait for an album.

The referees a !@£$*#

Right, I've had a couple of days to calm down and think about this posting (Be forewarned, this one might contain some offensive language):


On Sunday night, we were effectively robbed of any chance of defeating the Steelers by the most one sided, inept display of officialdom I have witnessed in my entire hockey watching lifetime.

I don't really ever complain about the refs. Its a hard job, and they get enough shit off the fans as it is. On Sunday Marco Coenen was fucking diabolical. As in game spoilingly bad. I have honestly never heard so much vitriol spewed forth by my fellow fans as I did on Sunday.

Ignoring the washed out goal (which everyone, including the Sheffield players) thought was in, he appeard to be suffering froma rare form of myopia. Seriously. You want examples? Here are a choice few:

Brett Clouthier gets wrestled to the ground just behind the play. Neither Coenen or his assistants apparently see anything untoward in this.

A Sheffield player (whose name I forget), checks one of our players on the back of the neck, into the boards right infront of Mr Cun...I mean Coenen.....no call.

Kyle Bruce throws a solid, legal hit with his shoulder....and gets 2 for elbows.

And thats just 3 incidents (throw in Bruce getting 5+Game for fighting at the end, with no Steelers player being penailsed, Dunn getting a 10min misconduct for disputing a call against him, and numerous other...and the controversial goal that wasn't).

Needless to say the players were pretty incensed, and as for Neil Morris...I have never, ever seen him so upset (even during the dark days) about something to do with the team. He was absolutely livid in the Loungs during the period breaks. And don't forget, he has acccess to replays regaridng incidents and goals... lets just say he felt a little 'cheated'.

And now I'm getting angry again myself, So I'll sign off for now....there is more to come from me on this subject.

Its another review of the weekend!

Well, its a simple, decriptive title....

So, a narrow (and by all accounts undeserved) loss in Notts on Saturday, tempered by the news that Big, Bad, Brett Clouthier annihilated Rumun Ndur. Big time. So total was the annihilation, that the big man had a pretty useless hand apparently for the next nights game.....

...Which was an unexpectedly big win over Cardiff. Most folks (well, tose of us who were in the bar anyways) had this down as an odd goal thriller. Boy were we wrong. 6-2 is a stunning result over a team as physical and tough as Cardiff.

And thats it. I really don't have much more to say.

Oh, except that I was actually deeply disapointed in the size of the crowd on Sunday. I guess some fans are becoming more 'choosy' as to which games they attend. Should be better on Sunday, with the Squeelers in town, but still...


The Sarah Walmsley Experience.... you'll love it.

The Plot thickens...

Information now shows that Frejhuset Ab are listed as bankrupt in Sweden.

It could be nothing (ie the company name is being used as a 'holding name'), or it could point to deeper problems....

More as we get it.

Interesting little morsel...

It has been brought to my attention via THF (The Hockey Forum, for those who don't know), that a number of EIHL directors resigned over the summer and were replaced by people and companies not involved with any specific clubs. Our own Neil Morris was one of them.

The new directors make for quite an interesting read though (thanks to a bit of an investigation at Companies House):

First up is 'Twillingx Ltd'. Based in Cardiff, they appear to be owned by a Cardiff based Brit, and a Swedish gentleman (Mr P. Hemden, and Mr A Christiansson respectively). No details as to the nature of the business are given. Listed as 'Other'.

Secondly we have a Swedish buildings company, 'Frejhuset Ab', who appear to be involved in the manufacture and construction of 'modular buildings'. Based in Malmo.

And Finally we have another Swedish gentleman, named Mr Lars Ake Olsson. There are no further details given for him.

Now, to me this is interesting in the extreme. Presumably, to be granted seats on the EIHL Board of Directors, some money has been invested in the EIHL/shares in EIHL Ltd have been purchased. If this is the case, then it explodes the myth that the clubs run the league on thier own.

Could this mean that there is to be further investment in the EIHL?

EDIT @ 2pm:

It appears that Twillingx Ltd are operating out of a building which is owned by Tomas Enerston under the name Engerstrom which may be a non anglicised version of his surname), erstwhile former owner of the Basingstoke Bison, and that he may be involved in the company also. There is also some speculation that one of the companies involved (most probably Twillingx) could be bankrupt, but I have no verification of this.

Whats worrying is that Enerston may be involved