Defeat in Cup was timely wake-up call for Murrayfield Racers

Murrayfield Racers host Blackburn Hawks tomorrow night, in the second game of their National Ice Hockey League Cup campaign, less than a week after a difficult debut in the home and away round-robin competition, going down 8-2 at Billingham Stars.
Racers defend against Billingham. Pic: Ian CoyleRacers defend against Billingham. Pic: Ian Coyle
Racers defend against Billingham. Pic: Ian Coyle

Racers’ forward Callum Boyd, believes the Billingham result acted as a “wake up call”, in what was only the fourth game for the newly-formed club, and he expects both he and his team-mates will give a better account of themselves on home ice (face-off 6pm).

The speedy winger, who has spent the past four seasons playing at the highest level of the British game with Braehead Clan and Edinburgh Capitals, said: “I didn’t know what to expect at all, I played two games in the NIHL with Solway Sharks but that was years ago. Going into it was quite exciting, playing against just British talent instead of (in the Elite League) mainly imports was good in a way. It’s nice to see British players being developed.

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“Along with our season in the Scottish National League, the NIHL North Cup is a great challenge for us. A lot of our guys have only played SNL, and they’re up against players of a higher calibre.

“The games are tough and it’s woken a few of us up. We can clearly see what we need to be working on and how we need to find ways to dig deeper in games. It’s a learning curve, but if we work hard I’d like to think we can win some of them.

“Tomorrow is our first home game against an NIHL team, it’s a higher level than the SNL and it will be great to play in front of our own fans. We’ve been working up to this and I think we’ll give them a good game.”