Hello Thunder fans!

I hope you’ve all had a fantastic summer – it feels like it’s flown by and the new season has crept up on us before we even knew the last one had ended! Behind the scenes a huge amount of hard work, time and effort has gone into making huge strides forwards as a club and I think everyone is rightly very excited for the campaign we are about to embark on.

Firstly, and importantly, I want to extend sincere gratitude from myself, and on behalf of our players and coaching staff, to everyone who’s been involved in that work. A huge amount of time and effort goes in from our amazing volunteers before we can even think about stepping on the ice. Without them, nothing would be possible, and they deserve all our recognition and admiration.

Our goal for this season is simple: to continue building on the strong development foundations we put in place last year. Moving into NIHL 2 gives us a fresh challenge, and with it, an opportunity to develop the habits and culture of winning that will make this club successful for years to come. We want to compete in every competition — league, cup, and playoffs — while staying true to our ethos of development, accountability, resilience, and belief.

On the ice, our team has been built to be dynamic, fast, and exciting to watch. We want to play smart and fluid hockey, but also with intensity. A big challenge we have put to our players this year is can we control games rather than just reacting to them. 

I’m proud that we’ve kept the core of our young roster together, maintaining our group of Project Thunderstorm prospects who continue to progress and learn. At an average age of just 20, this remains one of the youngest teams in the league. This summer we committed to strengthening the roster despite stepping into a lower division, with the aim of building a team that can move forwards together — and we’re confident we’ve done just that. Joe Nolan joins our netminding team and will provide good competition and support for Aaron and Alfie. Defensively we have strengthened extensively – Rob Oxley, Corey Taylor, James Moeller and Ryan Wonfor are all superb additions on the blue line. Offensively Harry MacGarvey returns after a short time away towards the end of last season with Nottingham, and the addition of Marks Kanins adds real quality to our attacking options. We have also added two exciting young prospects who will develop their game and have opportunities to experience senior hockey Joshua Blackwood, Haringey and Haydn Tucker, Guildford, both have real potential and we’re excited to have them as part of our roster this year.

I want to take a moment to highlight the progress of our younger players. Prospects Alfie Duguid, Josh Furnell, and Lewis Conroy all made their senior debuts in pre-season and showed a lot of promise. Will Rees scored his first senior goal against Coventry, and all of our second-year prospects are continuing to develop and work hard. Their growth is a big part of what we are building here.

Pre-season has been an important time for us. We were fortunate to keep skating through the summer, and since returning to structured team practices, we’ve moved forward quickly. Two strong performances against Coventry — capped by a 4–1 win at home — have set us up well for the season opener. This performance is now our minimum expectation, and we will look to build on this and improve every week to build momentum throughout the season. 

This Saturday we welcome Invicta Mustangs to Milton Keynes for our season opener. They’ve already picked up a win over Oxford Rising Stars and will come ready to test us, especially with their offensive threat. For us, it’s about being sharp from the start, sticking to our identity, and delivering a professional performance. If we play our natural game, enjoy being out there together, and continue to build week by week, we will grow into a strong and competitive team.

Finally, I want to thank you, our fans, for your continued support. This is your club, built around local players and local pride. I hope you enjoy what we put on the ice this season and feel proud of the journey we are on. Your support gives the players a huge boost every time they step on the ice, and it will be vital in helping us reach our goals this year.

I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday night.