WE were beaten 6-2 by Solway Sharks in the cup this weekend and it was a disappointing performance having played well the weekend before.

We played well in patches on Sunday but we had penalty troubles and made the wrong decisions at the wrong time.

Every time we got a bit of momentum we’d take a penalty or something would slow us down.

A big issue for us is the new rules that have come in, it’s changed the game a lot.

They’re trying to speed the game up, so the goaltender has to play the puck at all times, sometimes if you’re killing a penalty you’d cover the puck against the board to waste a bit of time but you can’t do that any more, any hitting after the puck has gone is now a penalty, normally you get a couple of seconds.

They were most of our penalties on Sunday. It’s a bit annoying.

For a part-time team it’s hard to get up to speed with the new rules. It happened last week as well and it’s not just us, it’s happening for both teams.

I was talking to the referee on Sunday and we’re still not 100 per cent sure on all the rules. There were a few calls where nobody had any idea what had been given.

It’s going to take a bit of time, especially because it’s such a fast game. It’s one of the fastest sports there is.

It’s going to put an extra edge on fitness as well. Sometimes because we’re a bit short on players it does give you a bit of a rest when you need it, but if the game speeds up it gets tougher.

It’s only a good thing for the game, I agree with it and I think it should be played like that, but sometimes you need that extra couple of seconds of rest if you’re short on numbers.

We’ve got Murrayfield Racers in the cup and Sutton Sting in the league last weekend.

I’ve told the boys that we’re expecting two wins last weekend.

I don’t know much about Murrayfield, but my old coach Tony Hand is there coach, he’s probably the best British player there’s ever been so I’m sure he’ll have his team organised but I don’t think they’ve won yet against any of the teams in our league.

Sutton have just come up, they did well last weekend against Hull so they won’t be any pushover.