SATURDAY’S home opener against Peterborough was eagerly anticipated by fans and players.

We wanted to make a positive start to the league season as we came a very close second last year.

Of course, the win was welcome, but no-one could have predicted how the game would erupt after 50 minutes with us holding a 6-2 lead.

We had not started with the same jump we had shown against Guildford but a hat-trick by Joe Greener had helped us take a firm grip on the game.

We were running four lines and the Peterborough defence was struggling throughout.

Then Greg Pick, with 10 minutes to go, offered to fight the Bison bench.

If this had been the first period, and his team was three goals down, this might have affected the momentum of the game.

With 10 minutes left to play and the game lost, his actions made no sense, especially as Pick knows I wouldn’t allow anyone to fight for such a poor trade-off.

I sent Joe Greener over to the Peterborough bench to ask their coach to control his players. This had the opposite effect.

After the bench clearance, the referee sent both teams off the ice to calm down. When we returned, we knew we were facing a four-minute powerplay, so I was astonished when the Peterborough coach said he did not want to bring his team back on the ice to complete the game.

That discussion went on for some time.

It was 9.30pm by the time the game ended, three hours after the first puck was dropped.

There is so much else I wanted to say about this game and our win against Chelmsford on Sunday, but I hope this account clarifies events as we saw them.

Welcome to the new hockey season!