The end of the regular season saw the Spartans finish third in the Northern League, and miss out on pushing for the top two spots due to a lack of consistency with performances from week to week. I believe this is partly attributable to the young age of the squad, and if we’d have had another one or two older more experienced players in certain game situations the results might have been different. That said the squad has progressed really well over the season, growing in both confidence and maturity as their ability has never been in doubt, and they’ve delivered the performances when they’ve mattered the most. The young age of this years’ squad can only benefit the players in coming seasons, they’ve shown what younger players can achieve against older, larger, more experienced teams, and I’m sure they will take a lot from some of the performances they’ve put in or been on the receiving end of this season.

Flintshire at home

We entered the playoffs knowing that we needed to make a minimum of 9 points to be in the mix for top spot depending on results between Whitley and Newcastle as we expected both to be strong in the playoffs, and that any less than 9 points would not be enough. We had not taken any points off Newcastle in the league season and only 1 point off Whitley, so we expected the key playoff games would be Whitley and Newcastle away from home. We kicked off by beating Flintshire at home 4-1, a good result against a team who are capable of upsetting anyone on their day, but it wasn’t going to be us – and certainly not in the playoffs! We were banking on winning all our home games, and having Flintshire at home first game was the ideal start.

Newcastle away

The following weekend saw is travel to Newcastle on the Saturday and Whitley on the Sunday – a key weekend from which we needed to take a point minimum, we travelled to Newcastle to play the team who had the Indian sign over us in the league fixtures, this however would be a different result – we had yet to show Newcastle our best and we had a point to prove. The game started at a fast pace set by Sheffield, and we soon saw the benefit of taking the game to Newcastle and exposing their slower defence to the speed and agility of our forwards. By playing with a tight gap between the forwards and defence we were able to control the neutral zone, and this dominance at centre ice meant the momentum was with the Spartans. We took the early lead and were than pegged back by a Newcastle team eager to start the playoffs well, for once we took fewer penalties and made sure we didn’t expose ourselves to Newcastle’s efficient powerplay. The score ebbed and flowed with us going ahead to be brought back level, then we went a goal down and at this point earlier in the season we would have folded, but the Spartans knew we had the ability to get a result and we went and scored twice to put ourselves ahead before Newcastle pulled it back at the end to make it a 5-5 draw – although we had a goal disallowed and also had other opportunities to extend our lead at certain points the performance by the players was what mattered and the belief that we can overturn a team who have been stronger than us in previous encounters if we worked together and not as individuals when we were in trouble. Straight after the game the team looked different in the dressing room, it felt as if we had reached the next level and that as a team we had proved to ourselves that we are capable of performing consistently for 60 minutes against strong opposition instead of 2 good periods after a slow first.

Whitley Away

The next day saw us travel to Whitley for our next away fixture, the Sheffield 19’s were also playing that day and had taken a full compliment of players for their game, with the Scimitars refusing to release any of their under 19’s aged players to fill out our roster we travelled with 10 skaters to face Whitley’s 4 lines. We were dealt a further blow when our Senior D man Dan Hughes was delayed at work and couldn’t make the game, so we played with 3 D men and 6 forwards. Whitley couldn’t seem to believe we arrived with under 2 lines for a playoff fixture, and were even more surprised that we lead 1-0 for almost half the match. Our keeper Dema put on the performance of a lifetime facing 60+ plus shots many of which were rebound and double rebound saves, including a 3 minute spell of being sat in the splits on the goal line deflecting shot after shot. The D and Forwards exhausted themselves every shift but still found the legs to close the passing lanes and make a hit time after time, we weren’t helped by the refereeing situation and with Whitley going down rather cheaply under any sort of challenge (not what you expect of Whitley, especially in their own rink) we were short handed for long periods of play and some excellent penalty killing and netminding meant Whitley got almost nothing to show for the powerplay chances they had.

Going into the last few minutes we were 5-3 down, and knowing the return leg at home could be crucial we needed to close the gap to a goal if possible to put Whitley under more pressure in leg to be played at Sheffield, and we got it, to only lose by a goal against Whitley with only 9 players was a fantastic result and set us up for the remaining 3 games of the playoffs.

Flintshire Away

Sunday 18th April saw us face Flintshire in their rink, needed a victory to set ourselves up for the last 2 games, Flintshire are a good team and they play a very fast stretch style, looking to exploit gaps at high pace and also pressure us deep inside our own zone. Although they played a good game they weren’t good enough and we won 2-1.The game was marred at the end when Flintshire with no hope of making the top spot turned and tried to fight every Sheffield player on the ice. Although we expected as much it’s a sad thing to see, our players knew our next 2 games were key for us and weren’t going to be retaliating to Flintshire’s unsporting act. This of course resulted in a fair few of our guys taking numerous blows, with Lee Haywood having 2 of them throwing punches at his head. What happened next was a selfless act and one was that greatly appreciated by myself and the other players, Dema our keeper who had been magnificent throughout the playoffs and knowing he would be banned jumped in to his players aid and started to fight back. This brought Clancy (Flintshire’s better keeper) off the bench and down the ice to meet Dema in a Rocky/Apollo Creed style collision. They slugged it out for a few minutes before shaking hands afterwards. This saw Dema banned but due to his intervention no other players from Sheffield received penalties as he’d fought every Flintshire player within reach!

Whitley at home

Whitley travelled to Sheffield on Saturday 31st March needing a win or a draw in their last playoff fixture to finish top of the table after losing to Newcastle in their previous fixture. We needed to beat Whitley by two goals and then beat Newcastle on the following day to finish top – this was as we’d been saying in the dressing room make or break time, we either set ourselves up needing a win tomorrow or it all ended vs. Whitley.

This time we had a full compliment of players and with a full bench we were determined to take the game to Whitley and play as attacking as possible. The game was tight but I felt we looked the better side, making the most of the possession and creating numerous chances. Whitley’s keeper on the day was young Murdy who had just returned from International duty where his quality netminding earned him the keeper of the tournament award. He continued his form into the playoff fixture and kept us at bay for a long period. Some sound advice from our younger players who had also been away on International duty highlighted the areas we needed to test and this slight change in our shooting brought results with the Spartans going 1-0 ahead just at the end of the first period. Whitley emerged for the next period and looked more determined but the Spartans were not in the frame of mind to let a lead slip and continued to control large periods of play, the game began to become increasingly stretched which wasn’t suiting us so we slowed the pace slightly to allow ourselves to move as a 5 man unit rather than play the odd man rushes every time. By gaining support in numbers we were able to hold the offensive zone for longer and create further pressure. With the pace of the tie back under our control we again pressed further and scored our second to make it 2-0, the lead we had been looking for to leave us needing a victory or draw against Newcastle to make the final as Newcastle had beaten Whitley earlier in the week. Although Whitley stepped up their game they were not able to create any sustained pressure and were relying on odd 1 or 2 mans rushes into our zone, although we did slip and allow Whitley some better scoring chances our keeper Alex Mettam had no difficulty in keeping Whitley goalless. At the final whistle we had got the result we needed and set ourselves up for a win or draw vs. Newcastle on the Sunday to reach the National Final.

Newcastle at home

Sunday saw Newcastle arrive without a few of their senior players due a fixture clash and also the fact that Newcastle couldn’t make the final. Although this benefited us we were still aware of the danger Newcastle presented with the players they had brought and we were not about to throw away all our hard work in the final fixture. Once again the Spartans set the pace, and the result never looked in doubt, as after the first few shifts it was apparent Newcastle wouldn’t have the legs or depth to match us. After going a goal ahead we started to move the puck around well and looked smooth in our attacking play as well as being solid at the back with good early distribution up to our forwards. Plenty of shots resulted in the Spartans scoring 10 with only 1 being conceded which in itself is controversial as the ref was the only person in the rink who thought Newcastle’s shot had crossed the goal line, and not hit a player and the side netting. Although it cost Mett’s his shutout it which was a pity it didn’t affect the outcome of the game. The 10-1 victory put the Spartans top of the playoff table and put us in the National Final vs. Haringey.

Playoff final, here we come!

Looking forward to our chances in the final we are expecting our opponents to have an older more experienced side, as many of our opponents this season have been, and this doesn’t phase us, in fact we’re used to it! From looking at the regular season table and the playoffs Haringey seem to be similar to ourselves in that although they weren’t consistent enough to win the league they are the form team in their playoff league just as we are. We will play to our strengths and look to cause Haringey problems from the out as we are not a team to sit back, and no matter who our opponents were they would get the same Spartans treatment as the lads have no fear of anyone, just confidence in their own ability. The playoffs have been a great learning curve for us all and the confidence we have gained from our performances will stand us in good stead for the final. As long as we maintain the good starts we have been having recently it will be a great game to watch, I know myself and all our players are looking forward to the game, we have nothing to loose and all to gain – bring on the southerners!

Martin White