It all boils down to two games this weekend as the Invicta Dynamos face the Chelmsford Chieftains in the NIHL Southern Cup Final.
The two legged affair kicks off on Saturday night with the two best teams in the league facing one another in the 1st leg over in Essex before returning to Gillingham on Sunday evening to see who will lift the trophy.
Chelmsford must go into the game as favourites having taken the league title with ease and the last time the two teams met, it was 9-0 to the Essex side.
All of that will only fuel the fire for the Dynamos though as they know on their day (or two days) that they can be more of a match for any team.
Kevin Parrish’s side will go into the game on the back of a poor defeat to Streatham Redskins on the last day of the league season, but they need to put that behind them and start afresh.
They’ll be backed by a strong travelling army of fans over is Essex for the first leg and a near capacity crowd is expected in Gillingham on Sunday evening.
With so much at stake and leading scorer Andy Smith set to return from illness this weekend, Head Coach Kevin Parrish wants his side to give it their all:
“Mentally we have got to be a lot tougher than we have been in the last couple of weeks and if we are going to beat a good Chelmsford team we will need to be mentally strong and we have got to be on our A game.”
“If everyone gives it their all, we could be in for a good weekend. We have got to get at them, not give them much space, get in their faces a little bit and be a lot quicker on the offence.”
“We have got to get under their skin and we have beaten them 6-1 at home and that’s no fluke as we played out of our skins in that game.”
Mark Lee is expected to return to the roster for the weekend having missed the past few weeks with Mark McGill set to retain the netminder’s role.
It’s weekends like these that Dynamos fans yearn for and it could well be one to savour. Let’s hope so….
To get a taste of what to expect this weekend, watch this:
Picture supplied by David Trevallion.