The fans call it Fortress Odyssey and it seems impenetrable at the moment. While they show no signs of sliding from the top of the super league, there is no complacency about the men who whizz around the ice whooping loudly when a puck lands in the back of the net.

The Belfast Giants are in training. Coach Whistle, a whistle dangling around his neck, bellows across the cold air. The well-padded players take a rest, coming to a sliding stop on their knees like footballers about to get their photos taken. Twelve months ago, cynics scoffed that the Belfast Giants would be lucky to attract 70, never mind 7,000 fans to their games at the Odyssey Arena. It was a foreign game that would never catch on, they crowed, in a community where sport was largely supported along sectarian lines.

Since then ice hockey has been attracting more supporters at the weekend than are seen at soccer matches throughout Northern Ireland. Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of their debut when they played to an audience of 7,500 Protestants and Catholics all cheering wildly for the same team.

What some called a passing fad, shows no sign of passing.

A year later, attendance at the Odyssey is among the highest in the league which is played across the UK, a development that bodes well for a Dublin team which is proposed for 2003.

Towering over the competition halfway through the season, the Giants - 16 Canadians and 1 American - are now bona fide celebrities while their coach Dave Whistle is a local hero.

"It is almost like a dream," Whistle said this week as the team prepared for what he hoped would be their ninth consecutive home win against Manchester Storm last night. "A dream come true To be involved with such a professional team, on such a nice rink in such a beautiful city".

"My biggest doubt initially was that we wouldn't get the crowd support, but December 2nd last year was the best hockey day of my life. The fans may not have known the sport but they sure knew how to support," he said.

They know the sport now. Families pack out the arena on Friday and Saturday nights; midweek games are popular but don't usually get capacity audiences. The crowd is full of children waving foam hands and women discussing tactics with their men who stand and cheer when an on-ice scuffle breaks out. As much about entertainment as sport, music blares during the breaks in play and a mouthy MC keeps the crowd from flagging.

Ice hockey fan Andrew Matchett described the appeal: "Its fast, its exciting and no two games are the same," he said. "But what I love most about it is that people from both sides of the community can come and mix. When you go to the Odyssey you are a Giants fan and nothing else, at other sporting grounds there is sectarianism".

As if to reinforce this ethos, game programmes bear the motto, 'In the land of the Giants everyone is equal'. Only ice-hockey colours are allowed to be worn in the arena, so the crowd is a sea of green-and-white jerseys emblazoned with the mascot, a fair-haired giant called Finn. The team's co-owner Bob Zeller, a 59-year-old Canadian, says this is key to the sport's success.

"For some people, coming to an ice-hockey game is like making a statement that they carry no sectarian baggage," he said.

Something else that has been crucial to the sport's survival, he maintained, is the numbers of women fans. "Our research showed that in terms of sport women here felt absolutely excluded here we have a level playing field where women know as much or as little about the sport as men do, a place with good facilities to bring children," he said.

There is also a heavy commercial emphasis to what is very big business. Management expect to start turning a profit in the third year of play but heavy sponsorship and merchandising sales mean that so far ticket prices - between £11.50 sterling and £15 - have yet to be increased.

A quote from Winston Churchill hangs over the Giant's dressing room door, down the corridor from the rink: "Never give in, never, never, never". Equipment manager Tom Blatchford surveys the contraption he has made from four hairdryers stuck together. He uses it to dry the players sweat-soaked gloves. "The smell is something else," he grimaces.

Paxton Schulte, the brawny player who scored the first home goal for the Giants, reflects on an "awesome" year. "It has been great, the crowds are very supportive".

The negative image of his adopted city isn't warranted, he said. "At least you don't have to worry about being caught in the crossfire like in Detroit or somewhere".

"Through word of mouth, people are hearing what a great set-up this is and I have no recruitment problems," Coach Whistle said.

"We have a team that I am confident could bring some silverware back to Belfast".