Glenrothes Grrrowl

Team News

TOP OF FAIR PLAY LEAGUE & RICH AND KEV MOVE UP POINTS TABLE……

More positive news for the Grrrowl as they prepare for the all important last meeting of the Northern League in March is that they are currently the least penalised team in the country and have 2 players in the top 4 of the points table. Keeping discipline and having the forwards scoring goals will be vital if the club is indeed to make its target of reaching the play-off's. All the Glenrothes league stats and the current league table are in ‘Stats and League'

Northern League Top 10 scorers

Name	Club	Number	Games	Goals	Assists	Points	PM's
Osku Rantala	Aberdeen	11	9	11	13	24	0
Richard Howes	Glenrothes	10	9	14	6	20	0
Jan Felchman	Aberdeen	99	6	12	7	19	2
Kevin Blyth	Glenrothes	27	9	8	11	19	0
Michal Jenicek	Edinburgh	9	10	8	10	18	0
Paul McMaster	Chapel	3	9	6	12	18	4
Michael Stewart	Chapel	22	9	16	1	17	0
Scott Ferguson	Chapel	6	9	12	5	17	0
Paul Walker	Thunder	69	10	10	6	16	4
Ross McEwan	Chapel	41	9	6	8	14	2

Northern League Penalty Minutes

Team	Games Played	Penalty Mins	Average PG
Glenrothes	9	6	0.66
Thunder	10	10	1
Aberdeen	9	12	1.33
Lightning	9	16	1.77
Dundee	10	25	2.5
Chapel	9	24	2.66
Edinburgh	10	28	2.8

GRRROWL BACK IN PLAY-OFF CONTENTION

T4 at Mayfield in Dundee on Sunday the 8th of February saw the Grrrrowl build on the good form they showed at the Winter Cup and collect 6 points in their quest for a top 4 slot and a place in the play-off's. Darren McElrath also made a welcome return to the line-up and played the first 2 games in goals as if he'd never been away.

First up were old rivals Chapel, and it was a tight game for 2 periods with Chapel holding a slender 3-2 lead going into the last 15 minutes. After going 4-2 down with a few minutes left Glenrothes threw caution to the wind but it backfired with Chapel clinically scoring 2 goals in the final minute to give a final score line of 6-2. In terms of overall play and chances created though, Glenrothes were satisfied that they had made the reigning league champions work hard for their victory.

The team knew beforehand though that the 2nd and 3rd games against the 2 Balwearie teams, Lightning and Thunder respectively were the ones we HAD to win to stay in play-off contention.... and we did just that.

Lightning were probably as strong as they had been this season and Grrrowl struggled early in the game to get on top of them. Once we did though we ran out fairly comfortable 10-2 victors. Game was a special one for ex- Balwearie player Stevie Barrie who scored his first hat-trick in Glenrothes colours.

The Thunder game was probably our best performance of the season against a team who beat us 7-4 in T3. Thunder went a goal up early but once Johnny Short put Grrrowl 2-1 early in the 2nd period there was only one winner. A great defensive performance was backed up by goals from Messrs Blyth (2), Howes (2), Short (2), Barrie and Campbell . Thanks also to our loan goalie for this game, Ben Milne of Dundee , who played a blinder.

LADIES SHOW THE WAY AND GO TOP!!

The 2nd round of the Ladies Northern League held at FIPRE on the 24 th of January, saw two fine victories for the Glenrothes ladies team that catapulted them into first place in the league with two games remaining.

Round one on October had seen Glenrothes get off to a steady start, losing narrowly to Aberdeen 3-1 and then defeating Balwearie 6-3. This time however there was to be no denying the squad which includes Gary Wilkie's mum Linda and Richie Howes' daughter Jenna, taking maximum points.

The first game against the St. Andrews Hot Sox was a see-saw affair that saw Glenrothes lead 3 times only to be pegged back each time by a very skilful, athletic and energetic St. Andrews team. However, up stepped Annariina Koivu to win the game with a goal in the dying seconds to make it 4-3, a lead that this time the girls were able to hold on to.

The second match saw another 4-3 victory, this time against Aberdeen , another very good team. This was an epic encounter which saw us come back from 3-0 down early in the second half to win the game in dramatic style.

Despite coming up against an Aberdeen goalie in good form the girls stayed calm in this game and gradually pulled themselves back into the game after the early set-back's. Sanne Ohrstrom equalised with a few minutes left and her sister Janni completed the job in the last minute to earn a vital win.

Glenrothes now need to beat St. Andrews in the final round of fixtures to win the league. If they fail to do that they will need to beat Balwearie in their other fixture and hope Aberdeen do us a favour and beat St. Andrews . If we lose both our games, Aberdeen can still emerge as winners so it's all to play for.

Video footage of the day will be available online soon and for more information on the Ladies League, go to www.ladies.floorball.org.uk/

GRRROWL SHOW GRIT TO MAKE FIRST FINAL OF THE SEASON

On January the 11 th in Glenrothes, the Grrrowl competed in the Winter Cup and finished as very creditable runners-up.

Drawn in a difficult group featuring Balwearie Lightning, as well as Northern League Challengers Edinburgh and Aberdeen , Glenrothes reached the final by topping the group on goal difference.

A comfortable 8-0 win over Lightning was followed by a tense 3-2 win over league leaders Edinburgh, and a 4-4 draw with Aberdeen .

The final itself was a tense affair with Chapel taking an early lead only for Kevin Blyth to score 2 quick goals to have the Grrrowl 2-1 up. Chapel however pegged us back to 2-2 before the end of the first period and score twice in the second to go 4-2 up before a goal from Richie Howes narrowed the gap to 1 going into the final stanza.

The score remained 4-3 until 5 minutes from time when Chapel blew the game open with 2 quick goals. Johnny Short replied to make it 6-4 but that's how it ended. Both teams were missing players in this game but Glenrothes can be satisfied with a good day's work that restored some pride in a difficult season. Congratulations go to Chapel for winning the season's first silverware.

The club is now hoping to end the season with a flourish and finish in one of the 4 play-off berths.

Season of Woe Continues at T3

On Sunday 7 th December the squad travelled to Mayfield Sports Centre, Dundee for 2 more Northern League games.

A 9-2 defeat by league contenders Aberdeen was significant in that it was the club's record defeat in the Northern League ‘beating' an 8-2 thumping at the hands of Chapel some 4 years ago. It was perhaps a slightly harsh scoreline but there is no doubt that it was a convincing win from the men and women in red who were superior in every department.

Perhaps even more disappointing was the 7-4 reverse at the hand of our local rivals Balwearie Thunder, in a game where quite simply the hungrier team won. Again there was unwelcome significance in that this was the first Northern League game Glenrothes have lost to either Balwearie side. We've had better days….

Coming soon….

Stats page will be updated shortly with this years players stats, and player profiles also on their way.

New Old Coach

After events at T2, Kevin Blyth has decided to step down as Grrrowl coach to concentrate on simply playing. The role will now again be filled by Alan Campbell.

The committee and the players are delighted that Al is back in the position he held for a number of years after the clubs formation.

Coach Campbell shows the boys what's required to get in tip top shape for floorball!

Rab Returns

Good news for the club this week is that defenceman Rab Wallace will be resuming training in the coming weeks and expects to be available for selection in the New Year. The team is a bit short on ‘d' at the moment so this is a welcome return.

Goalie Problems Solved…

Glenrothes Floorball Club are delighted to announce that it has welcomed Darren McElrath back into the squad. Darren back-stopped us to the Northern League title in 2006/07 and is a popular figure within the club. Personal circumstances will dictate when Darren is able to perform between the pipes this season but it is hoped that we will be seeing him sometime in the New Year.

For T3, it will be ex- Balwearie player Mark Duthie donning the goalie mask for the Grrrrowl. Mark requested his release from Balwearie after T1 and has joined Glenrothes in a joint goalie/defender capacity. He will cover in goals when Darren is unavailable.

Statement Regarding T2

Glenrothes Floorball Club wishes to apologise to the Northern League, the Committee and to our friends in the Chapel team for failing to fulfil our 2nd fixture at T2.

The club requested an EGM of the League Committee to explain our reasons for not playing the game. This took place in Dundee on the 22 nd of November.

We are satisfied that the Committee were sympathetic to the issues raised and have agreed to take on board certain proposals the club has submitted in relation to the transfer system. In light of this, the club is happy to fulfil its remaining fixtures as opposed to withdrawing from the league.

The Committee did however make it clear to us that although it was their preference for us to remain in the league that the actions of the team in T2 were unacceptable. They have laid down the following punishment;

-Chapel awarded a 5-0 walk-over in forfeited game
-Club deducted 3 points
-Club fined £60 (approx 90 Swiss Francs)
-Strong warnings regarding heavy punishment for future indiscretions.

The club has accepted the sanctions and will not be appealing.

Bad day at T2

Tournament 2 on the 9 th of November in Mayfield proved to be an unusual day for Glenrothes Floorball Club.

Short-handed after the recent departures of goalie Oldrich Rezek and winger Filip Jirasek the Grrrowl travelled with 10 players. Defenceman 'Reg' Varney deputised in goals, leaving us with only 9 outfielders.

Unfortunately the handicap of not having a recognised keeper proved a major problem, despite Reg's best efforts, and Grrrowl suffered a 13-11 reverse against the much improved Edinburgh .

An incident not long after this game resulted in the club forfeiting it's second game on the day to Chapel, and advising the league committee that we intended withdrawing from the league. Fortunately it has not been necessary to follow this through and the club will now fulfil the rest of it's league fixtures. The matter is explained in more detail in the article above.

Two out of 3 ain't bad...

Grrrowl got the season of to a solid start at T1 in Glenrothes on Sunday 12th October.

A couple of solid victories over Balwearie Lightning (17-0) and Dundee Northern Lights (8-1) were followed by a narrow 3-1 defeat by Aberdeen Oilers.

GRRROWL PAY THE PENALTY IN PRE SEASON EVENT!!

On the 5 th October Grrrowl completed their pre-season build up by hosting a 3 team tournament. Grrrowl, RBS Linlithgow and Dundee Northern Lights all competed for the Forth Tay Challenge Cup and it was RBS who took home the spoils. The key game of the event saw Grrrowl and RBS drawing 5-5 and RBS winning the subsequent penalty shoot-out.

Congratulations to Linlithgow on their win, and thanks to them and Dundee for travelling to Glenrothes for a good days floorball.

Wishart International renew sponsorship

The club is very grateful to Wishart International who will again be sponsoring Glenrothes Grrrowl for the forthcoming season.

We benefited greatly from the firm's support in season 2006/07, and are delighted that they continue to back us despite our year out in 2007/08.

The company also sponsored the GBFF National Finals in Perth in 2007, and Kevin Huskie their MD is a fan of floorball. Kevin told us; “We're more than happy to stay involved with Glenrothes Floorball Club. We wish you the best of luck for the coming season and hope that the league as a whole continues to thrive and grow. It's an excellent sport that deserves any support available”.

Pictured is Kevin presenting team coach Kevin Blyth with a cheque for 500 pounds. This money will be invaluable in terms of meeting the costs of running a floorball club and is much appreciated.

There is a link to the Wishart International web-site at the bottom of the page.

Proud Sponsors

	Established in 1913 Wishart International is a Scottish based company, which, over the years has grown to offer a wide range of services. The company are the main sponsor for the Glenrothes Grrrowl team, and we would like to offer our thanks for their kind generosity and support. For further details about the company, simply click the logo above.