Invicta Dynamos fan Lee Allen looks back at the past week and the joys of doing parkruns in his exclusive blog.
Monday 26th October to Friday 30th October
It’s never a great start to the week having seen the team you follow getting beat during the weekend, especially when you don’t score but it’s not time to dwell on things, what happened has to be put in the past.
I don’t normally have the heart to watch the highlights that Paul Bennett and his brother compile following a defeat but I did watch them this week – the elbow from Chris Wiggins on Ondrej Zosiak was clear to see and it’s a great shame the incident went unpunished.
Early in the week a statement from the Oxford City Stars states that Steve Osman has parted company with the team. Head Coach Simon Anderson commented on the Stars website: “I am obviously disappointed that Steve has decided to leave the Stars. We had a conversation on Monday evening where he told me he wasn’t happy and was finding it hard to adapt to our style of play. Obviously with the team playing so well right now we can’t change our style to suit one player, so reluctantly I have accepted Steve’s wishes. It’s a shame as he is a top quality player at this level”.
Rumours start to circulate about Steve possibly signing for Bristol, Wightlink and Solent but by the end of the week it’s confirmed he has re-joined the Dynamos. For me, Osman was one of our best players last season where he produced 44 points from 28 games. I felt we were not the same team after he left us during the Christmas period. I’m sure he will be a huge asset to our team this season and our young forwards will be able to learn from him.
Steve Osman told the Invicta Dynamos website, “Firstly I just want to say thank you to everyone at the Oxford organisation for all they have done. Unfortunately, in the end, I felt it wasn’t quite the right fit for me so I have decided to move on. I called Kev at the Mo’s this week to see if there was an opportunity to come back to Invicta and I’m very happy to say that we came to an agreement for me to do so. Now I am just really looking forward to getting back on the ice with the Dynamos and will be joining up with the team at training on Thursday. Even more than that I’m looking forward to hearing those loud fans and the special atmosphere inside that rink again on game days!”
Saturday 31st October
Halloween certainly went and put a trick on our display today. A disappointing 1-1 draw at home to Cardiff was not what most people were expecting. There was a home debut for Damien King, whilst Steve Osman made his first appearance since re-joining the club. It was Osman who played a hand in the Dynamos only goal, laying a pass from a face-off to Eriks Ozollapa who fired the puck into the net to give us the lead in the 13th minute.
Time ticked-on and you could sense the concern around the rink that only one goal might not be enough, and that rang true when Thomas Stuart-Dant scored an equaliser in the 55th minute. Amazingly the Dynamos had 42 shots at the visiting netminder Michael Crisp but only converted one. After the game you could sense around the bar the disappointment amongst the fans and the players. We can only hope for better at Solent on Sunday.
To celebrate my daughters (Jazmine) 17th birthday she was the puck sponsor for the night, she doesn’t normally wear her face like this I promise……
To read Steve Wolfe’s match report please follow the link below, the link also provides access to audio interviews with Steve Osman and a very forthright interview with Kevin Parrish.
http://www.kentsportsnews.com/invicta-dynamos-1-1-cardiff-nihl-devils-31-10-2015/
Away from the rink the running group of Dynamos fans decided on running the Shorne Woods 5k this morning. A very enjoyable run, albeit a bit boggy. If you get the time please read the following link about one special person running 401 marathons in 401 days, Ben Smith is a true inspiration.
http://www.kentsportsnews.com/blog-a-man-on-the-run-401-of-them-29-10-2015/
Sunday 1st November
What a day to travel. Foggy conditions for the duration of the 120 mile trip and a 7pm face-off in Gosport. Pre-match at Gosport is a traditional carvery meal at the pub just outside the rink, this normally puts you in good preparation for the night ahead. For those of you that have never been to the Gosport rink before all I can say is it’s not an easy rink to play at. It’s one of the smallest you will ever see, the ceiling is low and conditions are normally really cold.
The Solent Devils use the conditions well and I’ve seen the Invicta Dynamos struggle here a few times in the past, as have many other sides. One positive was the PA system was a lot clearer tonight than it tended to be from previous encounters, this helps make my Twitter updates a lot easier.
Our referee from the recent Streatham game, Blaine Evans is one of the two officials tonight. Is it me or do we tend to get a run of the same referee every week? It seemed to happen a lot last season with Jurijs Solovjovs. ….just an observation of mine.
Anyway, after going a going down we turn things around with goals by Arran Strawson (assisted by Steve Osman) and Conor Redmond (assisted by Ondrej Zosiak) but end-up drawing after a third period goal from coming from Richard Facey. The performance was better than the night before, certainly the second period was one of the best we played all season I thought.
Due to it being a late game and me having both of my girls with me the night before a school day I didn’t have time to do an audio interview – but it should be business as usual next Saturday at Streatham. The journey home was a bit of a challenge, the fog was a lot thicker than the journey down to Gosport and I finally get home safe at 11:45pm.
Match report: http://www.kentsportsnews.com/solent-devils-2-2-invicta-dynamos-01-11-2015/