I joked a few weeks ago about not celebrating the New Year until we picked up some League points. The point in Belfast means I made it just in time for the Chinese New Year but to be truthful I'm not in much of a mood to celebrate.

I'm afraid my frustration showed itself on Sunday night. As a coach, I feel responsible for everything that happens on the ice. We were focused for sixty minutes in Belfast, but not at home.

Belfast is a great rink to visit and it's easy to get up for the game. I've no doubt the Giants would be up at the top of the title race had it not been for a run of injuries. They have the skill to create lots of two or three on one plays and put in a lot of shots on goal when playing in front of their home crowd.

Quite a setting for Euan King who thoroughly deserved his man of the match award, facing 57 shots while we put only 19 on Stevie Lyle. Euan has long admired Steve and has been coached by him in the past. What a great memory for the young man to take away with him.

I think Belfast eased up a little when they scored their first goal and we were able to punish them for that. They repaid us by upping their game after we took the lead. This set up one of the best third periods we've played for some time. One of our goals was to cost us, although we didn't realise quite how much at the time. Brent scored with a tremendous slapshot, his back went into spasm and he had to leave the ice.

Danny Stewart had a problem with his skate at the beginning of Sunday's game, so we were under pressure from the beginning, missing him, temporarily, and Brent.
Belfast applied much more consistent pressure and I'm afraid we buckled eventually.

One young man who didn't, however, was man of the match Shaun Thompson. None of us had been surprised earlier when in the week when he was selected for the All Star game. He wants to learn and he's playing bigger and older than he is, whether he's getting in front of the net or playing defensively. He certainly made the right decision to rejoin the Elite League this year.

See you Saturday