Tuesday 24 September 2024

Match Report: Coventry NIHL Blaze 13 – Deeside Ducks 1 (NIHL Laidler Division)

Deeside Ducks' first ever away game - against Coventry NIHL Blaze (Photo by Maxine Roscoe)

Saturday 21st September: NIHL Laidler Division – Coventry NIHL Blaze 13 – Deeside Ducks 1

The Deeside Ducks had a difficult time on their first ever away trip – losing 13-1 to a highly organised Coventry Blaze side on Saturday.

Continuing their policy of encouraging young talent and providing a stepping stone into senior league hockey, the Ducks gave NIHL debuts to three more promising players – Mackenzie Wilkes, Liam Yarwood and 16-year old Deacon Wilkes.

Deeside found themselves up against it right from the start and were 3-0 down by the end of the first period. It was 8-0 after two periods and they were 12-0 down by the time Michael Speare scored their first ever away goal in the third period. The netminding partnership of Callum Preston and Paul Jones were kept busy all night but managed to keep out 55 of the 68 shots that they faced between them.  Deacon Wilkes was named the Ducks’ Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the match.

After the game, lead coach Peter Bleackley said:

 “I’m not going to make any excuses. We just didn’t gel as a team last night. We’ve lots of areas to work on in training and I am putting this down to a bad day at the office. Coventry were a well organised team and played good simple hockey from the start. They outworked us and took every opportunity and capitalised on it.”

 “We will dust ourselves off and the team are looking forward to this weekend. It is early days for us all as a new development team and we just need to bring to the games the energy and competitive levels that we have at training.”

The Ducks have another away game this Saturday 28th September then they go to Hull and back to face the Kingston Sharks, who they lost very narrowly to 4-5 in their first game of the season. They are then at home on Sunday to Sheffield Titans at Deeside Leisure Centre, 5pm face off.

(Note: gamesheet not provided so match details are incomplete).

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