PAISLEY PIRATES-PREVIEW

Paisley Pirates face a difficult looking fixture this Sunday, when they take on the Dundee Comets in their last home Scottish National League fixture at Braehead Arena before the festive break.

paisley pirates

We rarely have anything other than a tough night against the Comets,” said coach Ian Turley, “and I’m not expecting anything different this weekend. The league has opened up a little with Edinburgh unexpectedly dropping three points in their last two matches, and there’s a whole number of teams, ourselves and the Comets included, who are in there looking to put even more pressure on the favourites, so like I’ve been saying recently, every match, and every point, is critical, thus we need to do the business on Sunday night, and I’m hoping there will be a BIG Christmas crowd there to cheer us on!”

We beat Moray last weekend a bit easier than we expected, and while I thought we weren’t at our best at various stages during the game, I have to be pleased by the fact that we scored ten goals and that they were spread throughout the bench, showing that we can get them from any area of the team. Shut down one line, and another can go out and score a goal or two, and that can make us very dangerous opponents when we are on our game. We also managed to give everyone on the bench a lot of ice time so I’m happy that everyone got a good run.”

Having said all that, I don’t remember the Comets ever coming to Braehead and not putting on a show, so we’ll really have to be firing on all cylinders if we are to overcome them and go into the festive break with a bit of momentum behind us. Like I say, a lot of teams will fancy their chances of catching Edinburgh now, ourselves included, but it will take a concerted effort to do so and I’m just hoping we can finish the pre Christmas period with a win and send our fans off to enjoy the holiday period, knowing we’re still in there! We’ve got a few things going on at the game during the intervals, we’ll have a Christmas feel to the night, so I hope supporters will come along and enjoy the cheapest entertainment in town by following their very own, and local, ice hockey team!”

Pirates face off against Dundee Comets at 6.00pm on Sunday.