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Message from Tony Hand

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As the Phoenix Director of Ice Hockey, Tony Hand MBE wishes to make the following statement concerning the recent events affecting the club -

“I want to assure everyone that I have been fully involved in and supportive of all the decisions regarding the Club since our inception and particularly over the recent weeks. I have now worked with Neil Morris for over 10 years and have found him to be a man of integrity who has worked tirelessly on behalf of Manchester Phoenix, to keep the club going

“As a club, we have always prided ourselves on the way we look after all our players and this has not changed in the very difficult circumstances we now face. We have known for a little while that the club’s finances were suffering from playing so far from our home and we have kept all the players fully appraised of the difficult situation the club is in. It will have been no surprise to them when we made the difficult and unprecedented decision to run the team in the EPL with no imports; a decision that, without sufficient funding, was unavoidable. We have been supporting the imports in helping them to find the best outcomes for their individual circumstances, fully conscious of the fact that the signing deadline is the end of this month.

“I want to thank the imports who are leaving us and the British players. They have been fantastic in their performances, effort and sacrifices they have had to make.

“I would like to give my thanks to the Fylde Ice Arena management and staff, who have worked so hard to accommodate us and make us feel welcome. However, it is not possible to continue playing so far from home

“I want to thank all our supporters for sticking with us through these difficult times ad look forward to continuing our great partnership.

“I am confident that we can have a competitive team playing at Widnes and look forward to the new challenges we face in building the squad for the future around the existing team. We are now looking to the future and I am grateful to the Widnes Ice Rink for giving us an opportunity to play nearer to our home.”

Our game against Peterborough Phantoms this Sunday, 15th January, will be played at the Widnes Ice Rink, Unit No 1, Venture Fields, Earle Road, Widnes, WA8 0TA . Face-off will be at 6.30 pm. Future games are expected to face-off at 5.30 pm.

In order to give fans an opportunity to hear first hand what the future holds, we can confirm that an Open Fans Forum will take place at the Shooters bar on Thursday, 19th January, starting at 7.30 pm