But the team's Canadian player-coach does not want supporters to turn their back on his team while the wait goes on to get there.

We're now into the fifth season since the collapse of the British National League (BNL) and progress has yet to extend to even allow a second import player to come to Kirkcaldy.

And there are worrying signs that more supporters than ever are now beginning to lose the ice hockey bug.

Only around 300 fans turned up at Fife Ice Arena on Saturday night as Flyers won a hard fought, but ultimately one-side match against Irish team Charlestown Chiefs.

And they are supposed to be one of the biggest draws in the current set-up, and one of the toughest opponents for the Celtic Cup.

Recent routs of Dundee Comets and Braehead Pirates showed there are still teams involved in the competitions simply to make up the numbers.

The more closely fought battles against Dundee Stars and Solway Sharks come around so often that come Christmas they're beginning to lose significance.

A team capable of attracting sell out crowds in its hey-dey deserves to be part of a better product.

Dutiaume has been around Fife long enough to know the type of hockey needed to bring fans flooding back to the rink.

He told SportsPress: "I've seen hockey from its pinnacle right down to the SNL and my goal is to get back into the best league possible – but we need help from everyone.

"We're a community and we've all got to stick together.

"At the moment, we can only play what we're put out against. I keep harping back to the Sheffield game in pre-season because it was physical, everybody was involved and we had to be focused all game.

"That's the games I want to be playing in every week. If I could play the guys from Sheffield every week I'd be over the moon.

"The games that turn into roller hockey where it's stretched out and nobody's skating hard, particularly our opponents, that's when we tend to shut off.

"Then it gets boring. People don't like watching it and guys don't like playing in it. We've got to strive to get regular games against teams like Sheffield."

With the Elite League seemingly an unviable and unwelcoming option, the only way to do that, it seems, is for Flyers to bid to join the English Premier League (EPL).

That would bring the likes of Manchester, Guidlford and Bracknell back as well as, at minimum, three good quality imports in each side. It's a set up that seems to work ... and one that Dutiaume wants to be involved in.

"I've been wishing for it for years," he said. "Something has to happen. We've got to strive to improve the league we're in and the teams we're playing against.

"It's hurting on our gates and then the guys get down because people aren't watching them, and it's becomes a big cycle."

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