Vipers ready for sack race

Dec 12 2007 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

COLIN Shields has admitted the Vipers dressing room is not as it should be but vowed those in it will do everything they can tonight to avoid anyone leaving with a P45.

Jobs are on the line when the Newcastle-based side visit Hull Stingrays in this evening’s Elite League clash and Shields is not disguising morale has taken a turn for the worst after eight defeats from nine games.

Defenceman Petr Kratky was sacked last week and coach Rob Wilson has warned others may follow. Shields acknowledges it has had a bearing on the players’ mood, but hopes it will ultimately be a positive one.

“I’d like to say the spirit is OK and people will put on a brave face but you can tell on the ice when something goes wrong that guys’ heads drop,” the 27-year-old Glaswegian conceded.

“It doesn’t make the game fun any more and it seems a lot harder. At times it feels like you’re skating uphill, whereas when you’re winning it’s like going downhill and everything seems to bounce your way.

“It (the threat of further sackings) should make guys play harder because everybody’s happy here. We all get along with each other. You want to play for each other and if you like the guy sat next to you, you don’t want him or you leaving.”

This is only Shields’ second season in the Elite League but he has already noticed a marked difference in the trigger-happy nature of club owners and coaches (Wilson is both) since representing Belfast Giants in 2005-06.

“Belfast have changed five or six (players) this season and Nottingham have changed a few,” he noted. “When I played a few years ago hardly anyone changed players during a season but because everyone thinks they can win the league they don’t want to wait around for players to start performing.

“It’s a good thing and a bad thing: there isn’t that job security but players have to play their best every game.”

While Shields believes luck has contributed, he knows the players cannot shirk their responsibilities.

“We have to accept we haven’t been putting in the same effort in terms of systems and the defensive side,” he said. “When things aren’t going your way everyone tries to do things themselves. You can’t really push too much because your third forward, who’s got the more defensive role, can get caught at the wrong end. We’re giving other teams opportunities through odd-man rushes and the like.

“When things aren’t going right for you as a team everything seems to go wrong,

“It’s not like we had a different line-up back then (when the Vipers were top of the league) and we’re playing against the same teams. We’ve let heads go down and it’s tough to get it back. You’ve got to have a lot of strong characters.

“Since we won 2-1 at Coventry we’ve gone from being a team that was stingy in terms of giving up goals to giving up five, six, eight in games. You’re not going to win many games doing that, if any.”