PAISLEY PIRATES-PREVIEW

Paisley Pirates coach Ian Turley is looking forward to the second leg of his team’s Scottish Cup semi-final this Sunday for a whole host of reasons, after seeing his side beat Kilmarnock Storm in the first leg last Saturday, but he certainly isn’t taking anything for granted, and he’s warning everyone at the club not to assume the club is already in the final.

“I accept that there will be those who believe the job is already done and that we’re in the final towards the end of April, but I’m not one of them!” he said with conviction. “We’ve got to where we’ve reached this year by the same approach, namely, take one game at a time, treat your opponents with the utmost respect, and take nothing for granted, so I’ll certainly not be changing the mantra now, and I’ll quickly remind anybody who thinks otherwise.

He continued, “Storm have a lot of guys who played for us at Braehead in previous seasons, so they will welcome coming back to the wide open spaces here. I actually think they have players who will enjoy the extra space they will find at our home ice, so they will certainly need to be watched very carefully. I know this might be seen as an over cautious approach by some, but we need to be certain that we continue to employ the same practices as we’ve done so far, we’re playing for a cup final place, and when we play the way we can and show the right attitude I never have any doubts about our ability to win games, and that will be the way we go about Sunday’s game. It’s all about maintaining good habits and setting out to win every single game we play. It’s irrelevant what competition we play in, our only objective is to win and take one game at a time, if we continue to do that then everything else takes care of itself.

“It’s a great chance for our supporters to welcome back the guys who, in my opinion, deserve all the praise that’s been heaped on them after winning the Scottish National League, and are now playing for a place in the Scottish Cup Final. Not many supporters can say they have the opportunity to see that all on one night, but on Sunday our fans do, and I really hope they turn out in force to cheer the guys onto the ice just before 6.00pm on Sunday night and then keep the noise level up at full for the rest of the game. It’s been a month since we last played at home when we beat then title challenges Aberdeen Lynx to reach the semis, so I’m looking for them to contribute to the whole team ethic approach, which they’re very much part of, and help see us through to the final. We’re in a position which every other team wishes was theirs, so let’s go for one penultimate push on Sunday and help get us there!”