OUR success last year was down to the intensity of our play.

We weren’t favourites at the start of the season for any of the trophies we won, but our opponents quickly learned how effective we were as a team.

We’ve got most of that team back, but we’re not playing with the same intensity. We’re coming out flat and immediately finding ourselves on the back foot.

Bracknell out-worked us in the first period on Saturday.

Dean Skinns, our goal-tender, changed the momentum of the game when he saved a penalty shot and we went on to win the game.

Okay, we got two points and won the local derby, but it was a frustrating performance.

We shouldn’t be waiting for someone to ignite our performance.

We need to impose ourselves from the first face-off.

We knew we needed a win in Guildford on Sunday to stay in contention for the cup, but we went one down in the first minute and went in after the first period trailing by three goals.

We had talked about their power plays and how to counteract their tactics.

We didn’t do it.

There are not many teams that could come back in the second period as we did and the game was there for the winning.

Instead of pushing home our advantage, we found ourselves picking up unnecessary penalties in the third period and being punished.

Our defence has been battling hard, but with Matt Selby out, playing with a four-man D is beginning to take its toll, especially with a high penalty count.

Qualifying for the cup is out of our hands now and that is not what we wanted to happen.

Hopefully we’ll produce some fireworks of our own this Saturday to light up the weekend for our fans.

All the best,

Doug