Why playing the bad guy gave Fife Flyers' coach Johnny Curran the joy of a win

The fragility of the dressing-room was evident as the club came perilously close to collapse in a harrowing month of December, and, week by week, the goal has been to protect players and ease them through a situation which, for many, is unchartered territory.

With 23 defeats in 24 starts, resilience takes a battering, and mistakes are, inevitably, punished, but there was a clear shift in tone after Saturday’s 6-2 loss at Manchester Storm.

After watching his side lose two short-handed goals and again concede back to back, Curran’s assessment was to the point: “We were really soft and slow, and you won’t win hockey games like that. Taking excuses away from the guys, the minutes were spread out but the pace wasn’t there. The guys have to look in the mirror - not good enough.”

The response was a far from perfect, but hugely gutsy performance - and a precious win - against Glasgow Clan just 24 hours later.

“I’m learning to play the bad guy a bit,” he said. “Todd and I have been trying to figure out this group and we started to twist the knife a bit. I don’t know if they liked it, but I don’t care - they showed it on the ice.” And they did with a performance which bristled with effort and significantly more resilience as they went all the way to overtime and penalty shots to get the win.

“The guys showed the difference between dressing and showing up,” said Curran. “They competed. Was it perfect? No, When I say effort - that was effort. They have set the standard and need to do that on a weekend basis.” Curran hailed the 3-2 penalty shot win as a “top to bottom team effort” adding: “We felt we were almost there with the Nottingham, Belfast and Coventry streak but never got it over the line. It’s a learning curve - we’ll play the bad guy a bit more with these guys.”

The win took Flyers into double figures for the season, and gave the fans some heart going into the final stretch of what has been a long and difficult campaign.

It was only their third victory in the league, and their forest in over one month of hockey. Flyers return to home ice on Sunday, March 2 against Nottingham Panthers after a long trip to Wales to face Cardiff Devils on Saturday.

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