Rumours....

No, not the sodding Fleetwood Mac album (ask yer dad), but some interesting ones I've heard circulating lately:

1: New team to join the EIHL in the summer. Now, this rumor has a couple of sub-rumours attached to it. One is that a team based in Dundonald will be playing (the near legendary Dublin Druids have been mentioned), which is fairly unlikely, but if Mr Convrey (who as well as being head honcho at the EIHL holds the 'franchise' rights for Dublin/Eire) has the funds in place it could happen). Another is that we (Phoenix) will return to the EIHL...yeah, can't see it myself given that we are still allegedy running at a loss in the EPIHL. And the pereniall 'Guildford to the EIHL' mutterings have surfaced too. Best bet is for another attempt to run a team in Braehead, although this is still not a dead cert.

2: EPL to expand. Rumors have a number of different EIHL side approaching the EPL independant of each other with a view to joinfg the EPL for next season. Front runners are Hull and Newcastle (who are sadly dying on there arse out at Whitley). This has a stronf smell of plausible about it.

3:ENL North 1& South 1 to become 1Import leagues. According to hearsay the EIHA has a 5 year plan to improve the quality of the ENL North sides allowing for a proper expansion of the EPL into the north of England. I can see this happening personally. Whitley, and  Blackburn are the best bets for this if it happens.

2 wins on the trot....

Could this be the start of a revival in our fortunes? Only this weekends double header road trip will give us an answer on that, but it sure was a releif to win back to back games again.

And the scoreline made it look like a tighter game than it actually was. But for an overall lack of effort (again, we looked stuck in 2nd gear) we could, nay should, have been looking at a double figure scoreline. Sadly, our D was somewhat lacking when required, a fact that is becoming more and more fucking annoying with each passing game. As players they must be aware of their collective faliure to protect our clearly not 100% fit netminder, and should eb looking to change things.

The message hasn't got through based on Thursday. Not being rude, but a team like the Scims should not have as much time and space on the puck in the offensive zone as we gave them, if we truly wish to be seen as a top team.

I think that Tony is learning some valuable lessons for the off season, and the structure of the squad for the 2010-2011 season.

Speaking of which, there are some juciy rumours doing the rounds regarding developments over the summer, which I will go into in more detail on in the next blog, which you can expect on Sunday.

Lastly, given that it was midweek, the attendance was fairly respectable, and I guesstimated it to be around the 600ish mark at the max.

This is a tough one to write....

I'm going to be honest here.

It was great we got such resounding win on Sunday against Swindon (7-2), and I was damn relieved we picked up 2 points, but by the gods was I bored.

I really just could not get excited by the game.

The first period was quite slow, as they are wont to be down at Alty, with us being more than  unlucky to be a goal down going into the break. After we got into the lead though, it was pretty clear that we were cruising  along in 2nd gear, never really pushing, or punishing Swindon as hard as we could.

For sure, their nettie stood on his head to keep it fairly respectable, and got a well deserved MOM award, but there was a spark lacking from the Phoenix which worried me somewhat.

I guess it didn't help that the crowd was flatter than a freshly squashed pancake either. There were a decent number in the building (the club is claiming 1200, I say more like 950-1000 max), and it started off as loud as usual, but thereafter it was just lifeless.

Ho hum.. always Thursday to look forward to. Might have some added bite with the Scims new 275lb pickup from the ENL2. Could be interesting. And whats the betting we get at least one 'Who ate all the pies' chant?

And the club have confirmed the Play-Off tickets. Priced as I announced last week, but the block allocation is now for blocks 7 & 8, giving us 322 tickets as opposed to the leak allocation of 261, and sticks us in the corner and behind the goal.

The great Tony Hand debate.

So, I'm sure most of you who frequent the official Phoenix forum will have seen the debate over the past few days about the ability/suitability of Tony Hand as our coach, and whether he is able to take the club forward or not? If not, I'm sure some of you will have heard people talking about it at the games.

There seem to be 3 camps developing:

1: Tony is the right man. Things are good.
2: Tony could be the right man, if he changes certain aspects of his coaching (this is the camp I am in)
3: Sack Tony.

Now, I am definately part of the 2nc camp there. Tonys coaching has its flaws. He is too offence minded, lacks conviction in his 3rd line Brits, and places to much emphasis on his own ability to drag the team to a positive result. All of this is in my opinion of course.

For me, the best way for Tony to take the club forward, and one I feel we probably will get to see is he hangs up the skates, and becomes a full time coach. Take away the worry about his own on ice performance and he will be free to concentrate on the other palyer 100%. This would in turn remove the temptation to play the '2 Line Hockey' he is now synonymous with. As well as this, he needs either a dedicated Defence coach, or a veteran D-man, who wants to move into coaching and is willing to be Tonys AC.

Now some folks would like to see him carry on as we currently are. This is certainly a viable option, but one I fear will not yeild the results that a certain section of our fanbase seem to be demanding (more on this later).

And finally some poor deluded folks seem to be suggesting that we ditch Tony altogether. Yeah, that would be a smart move, fuckwits. Seriously, anyone who thinks the club would be better off without the single most skillfull player in the EPL has a major issue, and should seek help. Tony is without a shodow of a doubt still more than capable on the ice. He is averaging 2.1 points per game, for fucks sake! Why the hell would we gas him?

Anyways, the reason this debate seems to be picking up steam is that some filks are now panicing because we might not win the league! OH NOES!

Funny thing is, I'm pretty damn sure that the clubs intentions for this season did not include winning the league. Making the playoffs for sure was one of them. Being competative was another. And last time I checked, we were doing just fine in those regards.

Being in the EPL is a long term situation. We shouldn't be assuming we are good enough to win it at the first time of asking just because we 'dropped' from the EIHL. We are an inexperienced club at this level, as the roster selection has shown. Its a damn good roster but not quite in the same overall class as Milton Keynes or Guildford, who have seasons of experience to draw upon. We will get ther for sure, but it will take time for the players and coach to adjust. Next years roster should eb more balanced with a better sense of depth to it. Thats when the title might come. Or maybe the season after. People need to realise this, and quick.

The EPL isn't an easy league, and it isn't an instant success league. Its a development league, and thats what we are doing. And long may it continue.

Why can't we seem to sort it out?

So, that was another entry into the 'What the FUCK?' column for the Phoenix.

losing 9-2 on the road was bad enough (and by all accounts we were absolute shite), but to stage not 1, but 2 comebacks from 3 goals down, only to lose on penalty shots... argh1 Not fair!

Now, to be honest, it was an end to end kind of game. As bad as our defence looked (and at times it looked woeful), our forwards showed moments of almost sublime brilliance. After a faltering start, even Big Ed started to hustle for the puck, and look like he gave a shit.

The major talking point was Jakkos Match penalty for an 'accidental high stick leading to injury/blood'. This surely must be one of the most contentious rules in the EIHA. By giving out a Match penalty for something which occure by accident (which by definition means not deliberate), you are penalising the outcome, not the intent. Indeed, from what i gather, it was the Guildford player, Masa, who in trying to lift his own stick caused Jakkos to catch him in the mouth. This caused a small amout of blood to flow, and the Match penalty call came into effect.

As others have stated on both forums and blogs, even given that we play ina semi pro league, and most of the guys have jobs to go to on a Monday, the Match penalty call is a tad excessive. 5+Game, maybe, if a fairly serious injury is caused, but for a minor injury (say a split lip, bitten tongue type) surley 2+2 is ample. Shit, its what the infringement would have gotten in pretty much any other league you could care to name.

Anyways, for neutrals and newbies alike this was surely a stunning game to watch, although from my perspective, I don't think my heart can take much more of these games.

Clearly something needs to be done about our D (and the lack of effective back checking by the forwards), and if rumor is to be believed, the the Phoenix have added Steven Wallace (laterly a membe rof the Sheffield Scimitars) to our roster as a forward, meaning Jakko is likely to drop back to the D permanently. Not the solution I would have prefered, but one which may yeild some positive results.

And thanks to Rock Radios tickest promotion the crowd on Sunday was a scarcely believeable 1500 (give or take a couple of dozen or so), which made for a cracking atmosphere.

more heavy handedness from the club... and some play-off details.

As I'm sure many of you are aware, some folks over on the Official Forum have been moaning about a list being taken to effectively 'pre-book' tickets for the play-offs.

I personally call it a sensible move. Gets the wheels in motion for the office, gives them an idea of how many tickets we will likely sell, etc. Of course to some people its just another way for the 'clique' to get preferential treatment.

Well, after the usual round of handbags, Andy costiga has just effectively banned anyone from discussing the matter any further. Which is too heavy handed an approach in my opinion. Forums are all about discussion, and if you are going to stiffle debate then why bother with a forum in the first place?

Anyways, thanks to the magic of the internet, here are some details (which the club isn't releasing until after this weekend, afaik...):

Block allocations for the Coventry Skydome:

Block 1 - Sheffield = 92 seats


Block 2 - Peterborough = 212 seats

Block 3 - Slough = 162 seats

Block 4 - Guildford = 214 seats

Block 5 - Guildford = 217 seats

Block 6 - Romford = 42 seats

Block 7 - Swindon = 228 seats

Block 8 - Basingstoke = 94 seats

Block 9 - Basingstoke = 239 seats

Block 10 - Officials = 41 seats

Block 11 - Milton Keynes = 209 seats

Block 12 - Manchester = 129 seats

Block 13 - Manchester = 132 seats

Block 14 - Bracknell = 138 seats

Block 15 - U18's & Gen public = 81 seats

Which gives us 261 seats... not enough, imho.
 
Prices:
 
Adults: £37.00


Children (under 16): £25.00
 
Be aware though, these details are all unconfirmed (but I bet they are almost exactly right).

A much needed 2 points there....

Bloody hell, we needed that win! After 5 losses on the bounce, a win was the only option otherwise any lingering hopes of mounting a charge for the regular season title would have been done for.

We didn't make it easy mind. The first period was shocking. We looked like a bunch of newbies, playing their first ever game together. Passes going astray, players out of position, and a look of general anarchy. Luckily for us, P'Boro could only manage 1 goal, meaning that there was still everything to play for in the 2nd.

And what a difference! A quick change into our road jerseys, and it was like a different team was on the ice. Big Ed was patroling the 'Courtenay Triangle' (c) (Thats bench, to blue line, to the crease, and back to the bench again), and looking like he had a goal in him. Mind you, he was doing it like he had been up all night doing animal tranquilisers, but still, he was doing it.

Fone was vastly improved on last weekend, and looked sharp, making some fine stops. Still too many fucking rebounds though. And the GB u20s line looked seriously fired up. 3-1 come the end of the period was a pretty good reflection on the team.

All the graft of the 2nd period was almost undone in the 3rd, when we took our foot off the gas, and allowed P'Boro back into it. Our D conspired to make Joe Miller look like a world class forward (he is an average player), and with the period finishing 2-1 in P'Boros favour it was off to the dreaded OT for the 2nd time in as many games.

Luckily for us we had Big Ed back, and he slotted the winner in past a visibly pissed off Wall, who proceeded to lie on the ice for a minute after the goal, then have a mini strop when he got up, hittting bopth the goalpipes, and the boards on his way off. OT also saw a very odd penalty. Defending a 4 on 3 PP, P'Boro took another penalty, meaning 2 minutes of 5 on 3, not 4 on 2. AFAIK, teams must have a minimum of 3 outfield skaters on ice at any time, hence the call.

And that was it. Still a lot to be improved on (the fucking D especially), but the important thing was the points.

Attendance was around 600-650, which wasn't bad given the shite weather and the fact it was a Saturday game.

Aaaargh! Frustrating is not the word!

Last nights game was beyond frustrating.

Being beaten, I can take. Indeed, I honestly went to the game last night expecting to be beaten. What I can not take is the way we played the game.

The D played like they did at the start of the season. Out of position, slow, and nore often than not plain badly. Fone was back in the goal, and we all know how many rebounds he coughs up, so why the fuck was there no-one there to cover them? And coverage on the back post? Non-existant last night. In truth it was a piss poor showing at the back, only allieviated when Jakko played some shifts back there.

Going forward we looked ok at times (shit, we scored 6 goals so we must have done something right), but we gave the puck away too many times, far to quickly. It was obvious last night just how much we missed Big Ed up front. he might be 'lazy', but he always seems to be there when we need him, patrolling the 'Courtenay Triangle' (a triangle from the bench, to the far point on the blue line, to the crease, and back to the bench).

And it was a dirty game. Wardell had no clue at all as to what to call, missing some blindingly obvious stuff (such as Jakko getting held and punched right in front of him), then called seemingly innocuous and trivial offences (did anyone actually see Walkers 'slash', apart from Wardell?). With the inconsistent, and frankly baffling calls, the team seemed very reticent to get involved in the rough stuff less they be called for a big penalty. And frankly it pissed me off. How fucking difficult is it to get an even half decent ref in the EPL? Goodwin is just as shocking, and both refs seem to not care when players complain, prefering to dismiss them and skate off. Almost makes you miss Hicks and Carson really.

So, Tony needs to work on the D (a weakness of his teams since he took up coaching), and he needs to do it fast. We are now 2nd in the table by the skin of our teeth, and could slip as low as 4th in the coming few weeks if the backslide is not arrested asap.

Oh yeah, and Fone is nowhere near 100% fit. He should not have played the full game last night. He was clearly uncomfortable on his glove side (ie the one he dislocated), seeming unable or unwilling to make catches above shoulder height. If it were up to me, he should sit out another few games, and get more strength back into his shoulder before suiting up as the starter again.