Well it’s never easy being part of the…

Well, it’s never easy being part of the Manchester Phoenix. Lets get it out of the way, shall we?

The biggest news of late is the recent revelation that we have had to withdraw the planning application for the Hilkirk St rink and are re-applying. This is down to the simple fact that we ran out of statutory time with the initial application. Nothing more sinister (despite what some “experts” or “insiders” will tell you. “Experts” and “insiders” who have nothing to do with the club, or Manchester City Council, incidentally).

Of course, this means we will be playing the remainder of the season out of Blackpool. Which is hard. Much as Dan and the team at Fylde Coast Ice Arena have made us welcome, the travel there and back every Sunday takes its toll on everyone. Players, fans, volunteers, it isn’t easy for anyone. And I would just like to thank those of you who do make the trip every Sunday. Believe me, it is very much appreciated.

Rather sadly, this news has brought out the less than savoury element of the supposed “Hockey Family”. Plenty of Twitter users, and a fair few on facebook too, have taken an unseemingly large amount of delight from this situation. Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t see how nay pleasure or enjoyment can be taken from the problems of others. To my mind it says an awful lot about the person who does. Especially one who needs to air this “joy” publicly. But not only that, some of them have even gone back to being abusive and rude about not only the club and Neil Morris, but also the fans. As I expected, I’ve been on the recieveing end of some, such as this bit of nonsense:

Which adds casual homophobia to the mix as well. Much as I’d like to tell Mr Oakley exactly what I think of him and his childish insults, I fear it would pass right over his head, and he would simply take it as an opportunity to continue with his frankly pathetic behaviour.

Anyway, lets look at something more positive, shall we? The team is really starting to come together, with us having won back to back games for the first time this season. Sure, we lost in Sheffield last night, but we all know now that we won’t win every game. I’m just happy we are still there, and still capable of winning games every now and then. And the addition of Craig Thurston was a nice surprise. His name came out of nowhere, yet he has a decent pedigree, having spent the last 2 seasons playing Major Junior hockey in the US. He certainly looked pretty good last weekend, and was a pleasure to interview after the game.

Speaking of doing the post game interviews, I have to admit that it is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. When a player has lost, they really don’t want to be stood around talking to me for 2 or 3 minutes, so keeping the interview going takes no small amount of skill. I won’t pretend to have that skill nailed just yet, but I feel I’m getting better each time I do it.

See you all at Blackpool on the 27th!

Addendum 19/12/2016:

Looks like I struck a nerve. I now most certainly can not “@” Mr Oakley, as he has blocked me on Twitter. Guess he doesn’t like his poor attitude and questionable choice of insults being broadcast for all to see. And just in case he decides to delete the tweet in question (because if he does, I won’t be able to tell:

One comment

  1. Great blog again.

    Regarding the people that hate. Ignore them! they are cowards that wouldn’t dare say these things to peoples faces. Homophobic tweets and abuse of fans and officials does not belong in our game, but the only way to rid it is to ignore it and not give them air time.

    If you feel tweets breach a line report it to Ice Hockey Uk but don’t let them get to you as that what they want. That’s what these small minded little people get kicks off instead of using their tiny brain power for good like perhaps progressing the game of hockey in the UK.

    Trust me I have tried to reason and talk to some of these people however they are the idiot 1% of society that also happen to follow an ice hockey team. Therefore ignore, block and report.

    I don’t want you to stop tweeting I get lots of my info from you. However I want you to have conversations with those that matter not those that abuse.

    The bottom line is phoenix took close to 200 fans last night to Sheffield. I wager not many other teams in the league do that. Once we are back in Manchester I am sure our following to other away games will also be one of if not the highest in the league.

    All these traveling fans brings in much needed revenue to keep rinks like the amazing, council and lottery funded facility Sheffield has for EG.

    In terms of your match night performance… granted I would not say you are yet UK hockeys version of Gary Neville. However it takes a lot of guts to stand up and go on a live streaming camera. I thank you for having the guts to do that and ask you keep practicing to perfect the art.

    Keep up the hockey journalism, keep the faith…. We will get back to Manchester just a few months after when we hope we would.

    Pete

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