Curtain comes down on a rollercoaster ride for Robbie

The popular defenceman called time on his playing days late last week at the end of a 2019/20 season then cut short by the Coronavirus pandemic.

It meant he laced his skates for the final time last Sunday (March 15) when helping Phantoms to a double-figures 10-3 destruction of Swindon at Planet Ice.

As Ferrara left the ice through a guard of honour from fellow players – with brother and outgoing captain James at his side – the curtain came down on a career of seven trophies and a staggering 537 competitive appearances in Peterborough colours.

“It’s been a rollercoaster with lots of highs and a fair few lows,” said 30 year-old Ferrara.

“When you look back and reminisce, though, you only tend to remember the good moments.

“I’ve been lucky to play the sport I love for a long time, meet some great people and win trophies so I couldn’t really ask for much more. It’s been amazing.

“I only announced my retirement last week but it’s a decision which has been a year in the making.

“I still love to play the game, but retiring is something I have to do for my family and my future.

“It was upsetting on Sunday night and the little kid inside me still wants to go out and play hockey, but deep down I know I can’t commit as much as is needed to play at this level.

“Obviously the coronavirus outbreak has brought my retirement forward by a few weeks but it was great to go out on two good wins.

“It would have been lovely to end with silverware, but it didn’t quite happen for us in the cup final.

“It’s obviously a shame the play-offs aren’t going ahead as well, but people’s health is more important than sport at the end of the day.”

Ferrara’s fine haul of trophies includes two trebles. He was part of the Phantoms side which blew away the English Premier League competition in 2007/08 and then repeated the feat with NIHL South Cup, NIHL Autumn Cup and NIHL Division One South play-offs honours last term.

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing. Ferrara didn’t initially feature in the plans of current head coach Slava Koulikov ahead of his first full season in charge in 2014/15.

The defenceman dropped into the club’s second team – Islanders – before stepping back up later in the campaign and featuring in their English Premier League play-offs triumph - and he’s been an unsung hero on the blue line in the five years since.

“The play-off win really sticks out as we won it against the odds,” added Ferrara.

“We hadn’t been the strongest of teams in the couple of seasons prior to that, but the way we came out of nowhere and lifted the trophy.

“That moment where everything comes together after so many people have worked so hard is always really special.

“It meant a lot personally too as Slava didn’t sign me back on for 2014/15 which was obviously a hard blow to take, but I worked at it and did enough to impress and come back in.

“Every one of the successes has been massively rewarding.”