Column: Fife Flyers players lead the ‘in this together’ call.

Fife Flyers are a team in search of that one break which, the players believe, can begin to turn this season around.

The stats may show them as a tenth placed team, but, listening to them talk at this week’s Hockey Show, they’re adamant that is the last thing they are.

It’s been a tough season on and off the ice, but it is far from over - if they can find that spark.

In the wake of last weekend’s back to back defeats, which stretched the club’s losing streak to 12 games, something changed.

The walls that seemed to be closing in started to be pushed back.

Team members took to social media to make the connections with a fanbase which has been eroded by a lack of match night excitement, poor results and the club’s often direction-less PR.

In the absence of clarity, or indeed a call to action, the players did it themselves.

Their message was one of unity.

We’re in this together.

James Isaacs acknowledged: “Tough to put into words how disappointing this stretch has been, but it is uplifting knowing the fans are behind us.”

His hashtag - #notoveryet

Jeff Hutchins, assistant coach, accepted this “wasn’t easy for anyone involved with the club” and added: “Please continue to support us through thick and thin. No-one in that locker room is happy with the results. This wears greatly on us.”

Bari McKenzie underlined the message of togetherness, tweeting: “Let’s all keep building in the direction we all want - and it starts Saturday at FIA.”

His hashtag - #staypositive

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Bari was also happy to talk about it on stage at the Hockey Show, and, more than once, he returned to that unifying central theme.

The players and coaching staff all well aware the tweets don’t resolve, or even begin to address, the well known issues facing the club, but, combined, they did attempt to re-shape the mindset off the ice and in the stands.

And they need to change that rinkside mood music on match nights.

Coventry Blaze head to Kirkcaldy on Saturday. It’s pointless calling it a ‘must win’ game - they all are.

Flyers need a winning streak asap to try to throw the pressure back on Manchester and Dundee in the race for the play-offs.

Other than one horrendous blow out to Sheffield, they’ve been on the wrong end of close, or one goal, hockey games - the line between defeat and victory isn’t huge, but on a 12-game losing streak it can easily become the biggest thing in the room.

Dealing with, living with it, skating through it is tough - this sport is played as much in the mind as it is on the ice - but the team remains convinced that all it needs is that spark.

This weekend would be the perfect platform.

Not only would it snap that tough losing streak, but it would prevent them equalling their own EIHL record. That’s a benchmark no club wants to hit.

It’s very easy to hide when everything is going south, and the mood online feels like a cloud growing darker by the weekend.

The inquests, the #tough questions, the calls for change, the pleas to the club to open the doors and let the fans in to help, all need aired and addressed.

Many are pinning their hopes on the promised Q&A forum with the directors as the moment things start to change.

It will be feisty, and the talking will certainly be straight, but it should also be a hugely positive step that could re-set the club’s direction and aspirations.

Listening to Jono Bullard’s podcast this week, he couldn’t shed any fresh insight into the well known issues that have engulfed Flyers, but he did say this: “They are a sleeping giant. Genuinely, they have so much potential. They should be a mainstay of the top five in the league.”

The road back has to begin with a solitary win. A spark to re-ignite a season.