London Raiders forward Jacob Ranson is writing a new blog during the 2014/15 season

East London Advertiser: Jacob Ranson looks on from the bench as Phil Manny sends the puck into the offensive zone (pic: John Scott)Jacob Ranson looks on from the bench as Phil Manny sends the puck into the offensive zone (pic: John Scott) (Image: Archant)

The hockey season is really under way now.

Kit is being hidden or moved elsewhere in the dressing room before training and we had another good practice this Thursday.

Looking at Frankie Harvey’s shooting, it will be a massive plus when he comes back into the line-up in the attacking zone after one more match in the stands.

With the powerplay looking better every week in training it’s good news as we know the penalty kill worked at Solent last Sunday.

There were a lot of penalties during the game, including some for myself unfortunately, but we had great support from the fans. I must say didn’t expect that many for one of our longest road trips.

My playing with injury to start the season (against Cardiff) must have started a trend amongst the team like my hair did last year.

AJ decided to copy me, playing with a bit of an injury on Sunday, but still picked up two goals, so I’m not sure whether he was lying or not!

I have to admit to the youngsters losing the little warm-up football match we had against the veterans before the game in Solent.

It wasn’t a little loss either, so I’d rather not mention the rough score line. The part that worried me most, though, was before everyone was out there I started on the veterans’ team!

Tomorrow’s game could be a great atmosphere, as I’m hearing Oxford are running a coach down to the game which is great from them.

I’m looking forward to seeing the turnout for the tough encounter. Oxford’s surprise start to the season will mean a hard game, looking at them picking up the points against Wightlink last weekend as well as running Invicta close in their first game of the season.

This weekend is an unknown for us as a team as they weren’t in our league last season, so we don’t know what to expect other than to bring our A game.

One face we do know about is goalie Ryan Bainsborough, who has been hard to beat since Peterborough Hockey School in Under-12s, so I will expect the same this weekend.

The main thing is to get another two points to fire us into a big following weekend against Invicta and Chelmsford.