THIS week we heard the bad news that my former club Telford Tigers are experiencing financial difficulties.

Although it’s not a surprise to me, it is a worry because I still have plenty of friends who play for the club.

During my second year there, we heard rumours that things weren’t going so well for the club off of the ice.

When you hear rumours that could directly affect you and the welfare of your family, you’re going to have negative thoughts but if you are a professional, then you will carry on doing your job until you know for sure what is happening.

During last year in Telford we were getting paid late and the first thing you think is that the club is in financial trouble.

But you have to stay professional, luckily, we kept on going strong, kept performing on the ice and it all got sorted out.

I’ve spoken to people I know at the club and they remain positive but for me it isn’t really a surprising topic, especially in hockey, every year you hear something from one of the clubs.

When it comes to sport, some clubs are fortunate enough to stay stable, some clubs go up and down and some clubs will never get above that red line.

It’s just like any business, sometimes it is impossible to prevent because unexpected things happen, sponsors could pull out, sponsors could not make a payment or you might not find any.

If the market goes down, a lot of companies become much tighter financially and sponsorship money just dries out, so some things you can’t prepare for.

Hopefully someone will take over who is 100 per cent in it to win it and they can put the club back to where they were financially.

Surely, either fans or someone in the community are going to grab the steering wheel and drive them out into better days.

Despite the frustrations of last weekend, we also managed to get back on track with two wins which is just what we were looking for after a difficult run.

We are happy because no-one was going to get on the ice and do it for us so it came down to us to produce, man up and give another twenty per cent which we did.