Welcome to tonight’s game against Telford Tigers here at the Hangar. It’s the first season back in the EPL for the Tigers but longer term Jets fans will remember some great battles against The Tigers in days gone by. The team has undergone name changes from and now back to Tigers and now we welcome the first UK senior ice hockey club run by a Supporters Trust.
So last weekend one great result and one not so great. You can only beat the team put in front of you and on Saturday that’s what we did when the Steeldogs came to town. It’s certainly not the toughest test I forecast the Jets facing this season but it’s early days yet and all the teams will get better as the season progresses, players get fitter and teams gel.
Sunday a long journey to Manchester didn’t prove fruitful as Phoenix MoM Stephen Fone seemed unbeatable on the night. The game ended 3-0 in favour of the home team and while a loss is never a good experience it’s good that we’ve come up against a favoured team early in the season so that we know where we need to be to be a successful outfit this term.
From Pete’s blog on the website I know the guys will have had a tough week in practice and will be ready for the Tigers this evening.
Our supporters have taken a downturn so far over the course of the season week on week. We started at 404 two weeks ago, dropped to 171 for the midweek game and then back up to 323 for last Saturday’s game. There’s room for a thousand here at the Hangar so let’s get the word out that hockey’s back for the new season and let’s fill those 677 seats. Last weekend we had some “award winning” (they won a free doughnut) fans who sat in Block B and danced to every bit of music and clapped and cheered all through the game. We found out that they’re new fans, and that was their second game. Great to see new fans coming in and joining the family so as I said let’s spread the word and get people down to the games.
Think that’s enough random rambling for me for now so settle down and enjoy the game.
Mark
