I was also surprised it was home announcer with home music, but I guess the question from me is what has happened the last couple of times in Belfast? - If they had all the home advantages then I don't see an issue with us doing the same.
I think we all consider the number of games played to eliminate only 2 teams a bit daft, but maybe the one benefit is to finish as high as possible to guarantee a home tie with home advantages.
As for the game, we got our noses in front and then showed a masterclass in shutting a game down, all backed up by a very solid Greenfield.
Although Guildford out shot us 2 to 1, if you look at tracking the high and mid danger chances were level, it was low danger chances where Guildford heavily out shot us because we kept them to the outside.
Regards
Doom
That is a fair point. However, lets say for argument's sake that was indeed the case in Belfast, how about we be the bigger club and make the game a little more neutral from a match night presentation point of view?
I have to say I was really looking forward to different match night experience in the arena, there should at least have been a Challenge Cup intro for BOTH teams, perhaps a route to the final type video.
Our current match night experience is a big reason I no longer attend our home games at the arena and prefer watching them on the streams. Less shouty and no 150 decibel PA screaming in my ears.
Enjoyable game to watch, this group has now shown that they can turn up for the big occassion. Big home crowd , media pressure , expectatiuons etc.they dealt with it. When all the guys are on the same page then this group is the best weve had for many a year. Enjoy this season for we know in this sport there tends to be a high turnover of personel but thats part of the game wondering if players will be found to replace so and so
I remember the days when we were the top story on Ceefax (The Durham incident), never mind hidden away in a sub-section somewhere.
Regards
Doom
Unfortunately, we and ice hockey only make the main news when it’s something tragic. Isn’t it the highest indoor attended sport? Yet fishing and netball (nothing wrong with either) get more coverage than ice hockey in the main news.
It's a real shame the BBC don't seem interested anymore, because they made a good job of the playoffs many years ago.
I will qualify my statement above by saying that Peter Spencer does a fabulous job and it was great to hear that Radio Sheffield covered the final like in the good old days.
As for ice hockey being the best attended indoor sport, I vaguely recall that point being made back in the day when I purchased Ice Hockey News Review.
