Long praise for goalie Whistle

Sadly it ended with back-to-back defeats and zero points.

Forward Ciaran Long, who is back in Belfast for his second season, admits that the weekend didn’t go to plan.

He said: “It was a difficult weekend all round. It was a pretty tough weekend not getting the points.

“It certainly didn’t go the way that we had planned the weekend to go. But we can’t simmer on those things, we have to put them behind us, put in plenty of practice this week and get ourselves prepared for this weekend’s games in Scotland.

“There is nothing else to do but to get back at it.

“We need to focus ourselves and get those points back that we dropped. Hopefully, this coming weekend we can pick up those four points that are on offer.”

The game in Cardiff, on the whole, was a very competitive one. Certainly had the puck gone the way of the Giants they could have grabbed the points.

But in the end the result, like the last time the two sides met, ended with a victory for Cardiff.

Long said: “There was a lot of positives that we can take from the Cardiff game. While it wasn’t the win that we had wanted, it was very similar to the last time we had met them.

“I personally think that we were the better team in both games but unfortunately we didn’t win either of the games.

“We are back at practice and working at what let us down over the weekend.”

One significant plus the Giants are taking is the performance by goalie Jackson Whistle who was between the pipes for the against the Dundee Star. All things considered he kept the scoreline against the Stars down to respectable numbers. Indeed, one of the shots he saved has allowed him to claim save of the week in the EIHL, which is no mean feat.

Long remarked: “Jackson played a really good game against the Stars. It is always good to have two goalies who know you can depend on.”

“It sucks that we lost for him as he definitely deserved more than that defeat and what we gave him.”