Proud of the boys grinding out the win on Sunday.Being perfectly honest from a performance point of view we probably played better against Chelmsford and Slough which resulted in two 1 goal defeats.However sometimes you just have to stay in games when you are not playing well and grind one out.
First period I thought we were excellent and stuck to our system and kept MK at arms length and scored a couple of nice goals. As a group we have spoke about needing more offence and needing to drive the oppositions net more and just score some greasy goals.I felt the first period we done this and looked really dangerous.
The second period to be honest was probably barring our first period in Invicta our worst period of the season.We just didn't get going and did not execute our forecheck to a level where we could play with the same intensity and along with some soft calls on us from the officials it enable MK to score 3 unanswered goals.We spoke about being ready for MK in the second,but just didn't heed the warnings and ultimately found ourselves trailing going into the third period.
There was no real panic in the second period break,it was more a constructive conversation of getting back to basics,reestablishing our forecheck and a couple of line personel line changes.
We were much better in the third and I was pleased for Josh Abbott to get that game tying goal,as that gave us a platform and the belief to go on and win the game.I thought we managed the rest of the game well and a massive shout must go the Bailey Hind-Pitcher for scoring the game winner.
I thought Bailey was excellent and played a great game both with and without the puck.His finish for the winning goal is something we have seen In practice and we hope to see more of that moving forward.
One thing I mentioned to the guys was that I thought that we looked a tired team and to be honest it's not really a surprise.We have been playing short since game number 2 this season and even though we had Bailey as a new singing we lost Carter Lloyd on the morning of the game due to illness and Josh Oliver who was already carrying an injury,skated in warmup but unfortunately couldn't go. We found ourselves running 8 forwards again.
We have this weekend off which has come at a good time for us.We get a break and hopefully that will enable us to recharge,before we entertain Solent on the 17th December.
We then have an 11 day break before we return for practice on the 28th December.
Following that I'm hopeful that all of our current injuries to Statton,Taylor and now Oliver will be healed and we can start 2023 healthy.
The New Year and second half of the season,we really want to be picking up a lot more wins and I believe with the guys we have and with execution of our systems and our team identity we will do that,but first we must take care of Solent to get us into our upcoming break in a positive frame of mind.
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