Now that pissed me off no end....

First up, yes, we lost, and yes, we deserved to lose. No arguements there from me. The Bison played a solid road game, and were far more clinical in front of the goal. Our D was opened up far too easily, far too often. As such a Bison win was a fair result.

What wasn't fair, however, was what happened in the 57th minute of play...... From my vantage point, Stevie Lyle made the cynical decision to purposefully knock the goal off of its moorings to deny the Phoenix a goal. I saw it. Pretty much everyone around me saw it.....

 Then all hell broke loose in the stands.

 Chants of 'Cheat, Cheat, Cheat' began to ring out, a chorus of boos began the likes of which I have never heard at a hockey game. Quite literally hundreds of people were incensed by his action. On the ice, the Phoenix players looked positively apoplectic when they realised that 1: the goal had been washed out, and 2: Lyle was going to escape unpunished. The game restarted, but the players hearts had clearly been ripped out, and the previous few minutes of ferocious play evaporated.

Come the end of the game, we then all witnessed something pretty much unprecedented. Lyle was booed again, during the Bisons lap of honour. He very quickly realised he was the target and made a quick turn and headed for the exit after a very short lap. Sadly for the other Bison players, this meant that they bore the brunt of the booing. I was part of this chorus, whilst I also clapped the Bison players very slowly and without my usual vigour.

Post game, Twitter and Facebook were alive with recriminations. I tweeted that Lyle was a #dirtycheatingcunt. Was this an over-reaction? For sure it was. My adrenaline was pumping, and my passion for my club was afire. Do I regret it? Not for a minute. People react to a situation, and these things cannot be undone, and as such we all must stand by our actions, whether they be right or wrong.

I also admonished the officials for allowing such a blatant act of foul play to go unpunished. Which brought me a tweeted admonishment from one of the officials in the form of Kris Wells. He also drew the ire of a few other Phoenix tweeters for daring to stick his head above the parapet. Then the fall out began. Over on the official forum, some posters registered their disgust at how the bulk of the fans reacted. Phrases such as 'darkest hour' and 'let down' have been bandied about. I shall repeat below what I posted on the forum myself:

So, in summary: it was our 'darkest hour' and we 'let ourselves down' by being passionate enough about our club to want to boo and chant 'cheat' at a player who just to all appearances cheated the club out of a potential point in a game which may have significant bearing on the eventual home of the league title? Please. The simple fact that this 1 action riled our normally placid fans shows just how deep that passion runs for many. People pay their money, then once inside the rink, they can react in whatever manner they so choose, as long as no rules are being broken. Last time I looked, there was no rule about booing anyone. If others don't like that, then fine, but please, enough with the melodramatic 'darkest hour' nonsense. Personally, I always hated the 'We don't boo the opposition, we just cheer our team louder' stuff. Booing the opposition is something which has been part of sporting culture for decades. Go to any football or rugby ground and you will hear it. It even happens at cricket. And I'm sure the Bison players who didn't know why there was booing have gotten over it. Lyle knew. See how short his 'lap of honour' was? He couldn't wait to leave the ice. Maybe he should have explained to his team mates why. And so we are clear, I booed. I have no remorse about this, as I felt it was the best way to show my displeasure

And that sums it up for me.

 See you all on Sunday.