OF COURSE, we were delighted by our wins at the weekend, home and away, but I think we were all affected by the freak accident to Aaron Connolly early in the game against Bracknell, in front of so many home fans.

Ice hockey is a fast and physical sport.

Injuries are not uncommon, but to see one of your teammates unconscious on the ice with a head injury is worrying.

This time no blame could be attached to the other player involved.

The medical team were quickly on the ice and after some time Aaron was helped off the ice and taken to hospital.

When that happens, a team will immediately want to pull together. Guys step up and play with even more determination.

We were missing three players but we were pleased that Joe Baird was back on the ice.

Then we lost Aaron and that set us back again.

He brings a lot of energy to the team and is a big influence on and off the ice.

He turned up on Sunday to travel with the team for a key game at Peterborough, insisting he felt better.

He also turned up for work on Monday, but had to leave early.

It’s too early yet for an exact diagnosis but we will be very cautious and not bring Aaron back until he has fully recovered.

Despite being four players short, we completed a clean sweep against Peterborough on their own ice this season – a first, in my experience.

A measure of how well the team is playing is that we have only been beaten once in regulation time in our last 13 games.

This is all the more impressive as I can’t remember when our whole squad was fit to ice.

See you all on Saturday as we hope to extend our run of home wins.

All the best,

Doug