Input.GetKey randomly doesn't work

[SprayNpraY]

Hi all I’m new to game dev and c# a friend helping me learn started off creating a version of pong where you can change colours which effects collision like colour switch.

Anyway the issue I’m having is For the 2 pedals which are player 1 and 2 on a local machine is that the player one up and down key randomly don’t work until someone has scored (which resets the current scene with an updated score)

void Update()
    {
        if (Input.GetKey(upKey) && transform.position.y < topBounds)
        {
            transform.Translate(0f, speed*Time.deltaTime, 0);
            Debug.Log("Gone to move player up");
        }
        else if (Input.GetKey(downKey) && transform.position.y > bottomBounds)
        {
            transform.Translate(0f, -speed*Time.deltaTime, 0);
            Debug.Log("Gone to move player down");
//*********CODE ABOVE HERE THAT ISN'T WORKING*******
        }

        if (GameSettings.colourModeEnabled)
        {

            int currentColourIndex = (int)currentPongColour;
            if (Input.GetKeyDown(nextColourKey))
            {
                currentPongColour = (PongColour)((currentColourIndex + 1) % 4);
            }
            else if (Input.GetKeyDown(previousColourKey))
            {
                currentPongColour = (PongColour)((currentColourIndex - 1 + 4) % 4);
            }
            pedalRenderer.material.color = Colour.ColourFromPongColour(currentPongColour);
        }
    }

I’ve checked the keys are assigned on the start of the game.

[SprayNpraY]

My friend came on and helped me not long after the post, it turned out to be the player 1 was trying to set the speed before the speed was set. Fixed it by using Awake…don’t understand why it worked for player 2 though.