Devils NIHL 1 V Chieftains 13/10 Preview

11th Oct 2012 | Posted by Geraint Walters

The NIHL1 Devils have a busy weekend ahead with a tough game at home v the Chieftains before hitting the road Sunday to take on the Redskins. The Devils will be looking to continue their form and take the 2 points which they should have had v the Chieftains last time out.

Looking at the Devils so far, it has been a huge team effort but there have been some standout players in terms of points production but it's great to see that the team are not struggling for players to bury the biscuit this season. With the likes of Scarbrough, Osman, Fisher, Lockwood among many others who've picked up goals so far, there is a great balance between youth and experienced players within the line up. It's still early days but sticking to their game, they can upset even the big boys of the league.

Last weekends game v Wightlink was a disappointing tie for the home team after being 2-0 down then turning it around 3-2 in the 3rd with 5minutes left. A lack of communication cost them the two points which they thoroughly deserved but as always, the netminder stood on his head and a deserved MOM award.


We caught up with Cheiftains captain Danny Wright to look at the new season and reflect on last year.

Last year.
Well I think as a team we had not met the goals we had spoke about per season, although we had won silver wear in the play-offs we was disappointed not to win the league, especially coming runners up to our local rivals Romford.

With dropping points in our 1st game at home against Oxford (2-2) we was on the back foot, then during the season having a few losses that we seemed to open it up for Romford, towards the last few weeks of the season to became a bit of a race, with the point gap closing between us and Romford things seem to still fall in there favour, they would get a win so would we then they would get a loss and so would we, As a team we just couldn't find a win to tighten up the title race. But sadly it came to a end and we came 2nd..

Play-offs was to start the next weekend, we had a good week of practice and was happy as a team going in to the 1st weekend, with wins in the bag we then proceed to the semi's, to Face IOW with going there on the sat and home on the Sunday we knew things were gonna be tough but we battled through it and came out on top that weekend so it was a Romford v Chelmsford final, home saturday away Sunday.

Going in to the saturday game the team knew what we needed to do to beat Romfords style of play, wasn't going to be easy, with a 4.4 draw Sunday was going to be tough, The team met on the Sunday early and the spirits were high and good feelings within the team. The game started a suddenly everything we had worked on and spoke about seemed to go in to place and the game flowed in our favour and we picked up the win, and the play-off trophies was ours again..

We had a team last year that was full of depth and lots experienced, being lead by Dwayne Newman who is a naturally born leader, iv played against Dwayne for many years but to play along side him was a experience, nothing would ever get in his way of finding a way to win, the British guys who we had were amounts the best around and the atmosphere was great week in week out, and player coach Gary clark was born to play the game..

Seasons must come to a end and players come and go that's hockey for u, sadly we was about to lose a bit chunk of the team and a hugh amount of talent, Dwayne due to work commitments, Longer joining the Marines and Alan Green and Darren Elliott due to the travelling, and a few others to other teams,

This Year.
With the summer break being over it was time to get back to hockey, with Gary assembling the team to win silver wear it was gonna be hard to replace what we lost in players last year but here we are and a team with 2 imports and young British team with the hunger to win,
With 3 challenge games under our belts it's given us the confidence boost we needed to enter the 1st weekend of the season, going to Cardiff is gonna be no easy place and should be a tough game for both sides,

This season will be no walk over for any team, with all teams strengthening and adding experience, teams that make mistakes will get punished, ur not going to be able to go in to games thinking ur going to get a win, i believe that this makes it better for every team and will certainly make the title race interesting...

Good luck to all teams
Wrighty #28

NIHL 1 Cardiff Devils v Chelmsford Chieftains | Saturday 13th October | Cardiff Bay Arena | Face off 7pm | Entry £6 Adults(£4 with ST) | Concession £4 | DCF Members £1

We urge all fans to get down to these games are most of the players in this team are future of the club and without these kids coming through the ranks, the Devils will be struggling for British players as we noticed last year with Piggott and Harding stepping up.