Our victory against Cardiff last Wednesday in the cup followed by our huge 8-3 win against Newcastle last Saturday seemed to take more out of us than we thought.

It was a little quieter on the bus going down to Basingstoke, perhaps we all were tired and just didn't realise, but when we were out on the ice we all seemed a little jaded. Basingstoke played desperate hockey, they had nothing to lose and jumped on us early getting a 2-0 lead. I have to say I was impressed how we dug in and after we levelled at 2-2 I did think we would go on to win.

The Bison hit back with a quick third goal and as hard as we all tried we just couldn't get back in it.

It's true to say that the heads were down after the game, especially after we heard that Cardiff had lost as well. If we could have won we would have only been a point off second spot with a game in hand.

We were supposed to be at home tomorrow against Coventry, however the Arena have moved us aside for a concert and we only have a one game weekend, with us travelling to Newcastle on Sunday.

This meant that we had an extra day off this week. Now don't feel sorry for us when we say we are tired but this is the first time we have had that luxury all year with so many games. What it means is that you can have 48 hours away from the rink, away from your team mates. Now I love them all but time away from them, and them away from me, isn't a bad thing!

Ask any sportsman, coach, manager or physic and they will tell you that rest is key, as important as training, in fact it is a part of your training. The two day off I took full advantage of the words rest and come Wednesday practice I felt good and it was the same for the other guys as well.

We will need to be at our best on Sunday, when we beat the Vipers we hurt them, hurt their pride, you could see that in their eyes as they skated off. I know a lot of the their players, David Longstaff and Shaun Johnson in particular from GB duty. They won't accept an 8-3 defeat and I fully expect them to come at us as hard as any team has all year. Will they try and rough us up? I'm sure they will, that's the Vipers style.

Will it bother us? Not in the slightest.

We don't struggle with that area of the game at all, in Corney and Steve Munn we have two very tough men, but what we have is team toughness, we don't step down from anyone.

Next week we play two games against Hull, next Tuesday at iceSheffield and next Wednesday in Hull. It's a Yorkshire Cup competition, we lost it somehow to Hull last year and whilst it's not the league or the Play Offs it's a trophy and we want to win it. The last game at iceSheffield sold out and the atmosphere for the first time in that building was fantastic. It would be nice if we put on a similar performance next Tuesday and encourage a similar response from you guys. See you there!