Coach reflects on mixed weekend

Lee Valley Lions coach George Alley admitted it was great to see his side break their duck in the National League this season.

Lions skated to a 5-3 win at Slough on Saturday, with captain Nick Alley netting twice and James Hepburn, Simon Geldart and Oliver Glover also on target.

And coach Alley paid tribute to his side, saying: “It was a great feeling to finally do it. The players have worked very hard this season and we have come close to doing it on a few occasions.

“Even when the score was close, what was really impressive is that we were very composed and maintained a lot of pressure on their goal, even though we didn’t score in the third period.”

Lions were brought back down to earth with a bump the following night, though, as they lost by the same margin at home to Invicta Mustangs.

Behind after only 29 seconds, they were 4-0 down after two periods before Nick Alley, Matt Hepburn and Chris Fox all scored in a final period rally.

“Our start to games has let us down a few times now and Invicta punished us for it on Sunday,” added Alley.

“They are a very fit team, who press agressively and that caught us off guard. We did well to get three goals back and we’re second in the league for goals scored in the third period, but we need to start games with the intensity that we finish them.

“We can’t afford to keep chasing games like that. It’s good for the league that any team can beat each other every week, we just need to polish a couple of things so we’re winning more than we’re losing.”

Lions now face a three-week break until they host capital rivals Haringey Racers on November 13 and Alley believes they can go into the derby with confidence, but need to be more consistent in their play.

He added: “Now we know we can win games, but Sunday’s loss was more of a low than our previous losses.

“Every game is as easy to win as it is to lose and last weekend clearly demonstrated that.

“The win and the third period against Invicta were encouraging, but consistency will be the buzzword for us and every other team this season.

“We need to show more of it. We know we’re improved on last season because we’re getting more shots on our opponents and we’re conceding a lot less shots as well.

“But because all of our games are closer, the errors that lead to a goal are more glaring as they’re now the difference between a win and a loss.”