LAST weekend we had hoped to redress the inconsistency we’ve shown in September, but it was only the fans who travelled up to Sheffield on Sunday who had a win to celebrate.

Ivan Antonov manned up for us in that game, opening the scoring with a short-handed goal. Our fans have always enjoyed watching his skill on the ice. As a coach, I’m pleased to see how he is now adding more to his game.

We said goodbye to another young man at the weekend. Dan Lackey moved up to the Bison a few seasons ago. Because of the 23 age rule, stopping players of that age moving between teams, Dan has decided to return to playing for the Buffalo, but will continue to train with us. Thanks for contributing so much to our success over the last few seasons, Dan. We wish you all the best.

This age rule is intended to maximise the opportunity for younger players to develop. We’re pleased to have a number of players in our squad who can benefit from the freedom of moving between teams. The more ice team they can get, the more quickly they can improve.

We’ve had a number of losses in the National Cup so far and this was the case again in our local derby against Bracknell on Saturday. We don’t like losing, especially on our own ice in front of our own fans. We took the lead, but did not build on that. The momentum moved to Bracknell in the later stages of the game.

Now we have a string of League games to look forward to in October. Obviously we’ll be looking forward to a run of wins against several teams who have not visited Basingstoke before, starting with London next Saturday.

See you there.