First and probably most importantly an update on Andre. As you probably are aware he sustained a fairly nasty fracture of the jaw when he took a hit to the head from Wiggins in our game against Basingstoke. I don't think there was any malice in the hit as it probably had more to do with the fact that Wiggins is such a tall player that he just caught Andre high up on the head. It was fairly obvious
that Andre was hurt quite badly and he had lost quite a bit of blood as the fracture cut through into his cheek. We took him to Milton Keynes Hospital and one look at the X-ray some 3 hours later revealed the severity of the break. It was great to see so many players in A and E with him in the early hours of the morning that the thought did cross my mind that we might not be in a great state to face Peterborough on Sunday evening. What with No Bazz, no Andre, Grant unlikely to play because of his injured shoulder and on top of that tired players. I shouldn't have worried should I? I thought Mets had a great weekend and one that I know he has been hoping for some time, and the whole team did so well together, again.
Andre was driven to Luton by Adam Carr (ever the captain) in the early hours of Sunday morning and after 3 days and 6 postponements (and a couple of fairly irate calls from me) the operation happened on Tuesday evening and all went very well. Andre came out of consciousness with both Ross Bowers and Grant McPherson at his bedside which must have scared the life out of him! They were convinced he was drunk and in Andres words " I talked so much rubbish that even I thought I was drunk."
Having spoken to him this morning, I cannot believe how upbeat he is. He tells me he is feeling fantastic and wants to start skating within a couple of weeks! The one thing that Andre keeps saying is just how brilliant the fans and the players have been to him. He has had loads of offers to stay with people over Christmas and in his words not mine "I cannot believe how many messages and visits I have had."
All he needs to do now is focus on getting better and enjoy the rest that he needs to recuperate.
As for Grant, his shoulder is a bit sore but he will be fine after the Christmas rest which is also great news.
Adam Carr is still smarting over an interview he had in Peterborough after the game on Sunday by a reporter from the Daily Star, (who he thinks was a Peterborough fan). The Reporter asked Adam what he put our teams current success down to his reply was something
Adam, " I put it down to the fact that we have no individuals with big big egos but just a bunch of guys with a great team spirit".
What got reported was something like "that we put our success down to the drinking and gambling we do together!" If only, but I guess it is the season to be jolly!
And then we have the fantastic news that Barry and Tracey have had a beautiful little boy on Sunday morning weighing 7lbs. 4 ounces and they have named him Archie David Hollyhead and the even better news that he looks like his mum! Sorry Bazz, the boys put me up to that one. Congratulations to you both.
As for the season so far, not really a lot to add, other than we are extremely pleased that it has gone well so far and its a bonus to be top (at the moment), we didn't really expect to be, but not because we didn't think we had a good team, but more because we expected everyone else to be very strong this year. So what are our aims from here? Well,Harry Nick and I had some objectives at the beginning of the season and they haven't really changed. We would still like to finish in the top three, do well in the cup, we want to get to Coventry and most importantly do our fans proud throughout our campaign in 2009 and 2010.
A final wish to you on behalf of Harry, Nick, myself and everyone associated with the Milton Keynes Lightning,
"A very Merry Christmas to you all, enjoy the festivities and thank you for being a big part of what makes The Milton Keynes Lightning so special for us all."
Vito |
