LONDON, UK – Another eventful weekend of ENL action saw Wightlink continue their charge, Invicta indirectly injure the Slough goal judge and Romford take a huge step towards title glory.
Wightlink Raiders Player Coach Jeremy Cornish and his opposite number Gary Clarke at Chelmsford were under no illusions of the importance of the upcoming clash between the pair, as they both revealed their thoughts in the media.
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Clarke in particular knew that his side had to win on the island to ensure they didn’t lose ground to fellow title rivals Romford Raiders.
“It’s the biggest game of our season so far,” Clarke told the Essex Chronicle.
“It’s our play-off final, that’s how we will be taking it. I said to the team at training on Tuesday that if they want to be true champions, if you want to be league champions, you have to be comfortable that you can beat every team in the division, not just on your rink but also on their’s”
“We need to make sure we come away from the island with a win. If we win that then we start to see light at the end of the tunnel”
Chelmsford had enjoyed a rare weekend away from action and Clarke was confident that this would prove to the Chieftains advantage.
“I think the break has helped because we’ve been able to take our time and build up to the next game. Everyone is excited about our mini challenge. I’m confident, with the players we’ve got, that we can put on a good run and win the championship”
Whilst Chelmsford had a nice break, Wightlink had a mixed weekend as they tied on home ice against Bristol before battling to a hard fought win over Streatham at the newly constructed Brixton ice rink in South London.
“The new rink is fantastic to play in and I hope that we see more of these types of facilities pop up around the south” admitted Jeremy Cornish in his weekly Coaches Corner segment on the Raiders website.
“They (Streatham) worked extremely hard and finished every check they could. I reckon if they had a couple of key players they wouldn’t be facing relegation. I’ve always thought that Barry Spours was a good coach, but without that quality, it’s a very difficult job for him”
“We played much better on Sunday and the guys did what was asked of them. As a coach I believe that if we stick to the game plan there aren’t many teams that can beat us”
Since their shock loss against Slough in mid-January, Wightlink have been one of the form teams of the division and were unbeaten in their previous nine games prior to the weekend.
Loving Brixton (Tim Bowers)
Nothing makes people smile more than watching someone get slightly hurt whilst competing in sport. In a scene that would not have been out of place on You’ve Been Framed or even Takeshi’s Castle, veteran Streatham player Warren Rost gave everyone a laugh during an upbeat Redskins training session during the week.
Fresh from having his balls tapped by the stick of Tomas Valko during a two on two drill, the stricken Rost winced in agony as he crawled on his hands and knees away from the play whilst clutching his meat and two vegetables.
Lying on his back like the stricken Costa Concordia, the former Slough and Ayr utility player then met another world of pain as a misplaced slap shot drilled into his right arm causing him to roll around on the ice like your average Brazilian footballer.
The offending shooter?; Valko again, but every person on the ice had to stop and take a breath such was the amusement at Rost’s fate.
Unfortunatley there is no bruise of the week this time round but in its place we can leave you with a little trivia. A certain Bracknell Hornets star decided to give himself a new look with a fresh spray tan last week. If you can guess who it is send an email to the usual address. A helpful clue is that his surname rhymes with the odd multi coloured pellet sweets known as ‘Tic…T…’
Saturday
The big clash of the day took place in Ryde with Chelmsford knowing that a win against the resident Wightlink Raiders would give them a great chance of winning the title race against Romford.
With no more fixtures against the top four sides after facing Jeremy Cornish’s side, Chelmsford knew that the in form Raiders would prove a tough test on their own ice and so it proved.
Wightlink stretched their unbeaten streak to ten games with a convincing 6-2 win over a decidedly uninspiring Chelmsford side.
Cass down (flyfifer.co.uk)
Alex Murray and Richard Facey both hit a brace for Wightlink with Grant Rounding and Dom Hopkins also on target. Danny Hammond and Gary Clarke got the goals for Chelmsford on a bitterly disappointing night for the visitors.
The goal judge at Slough reportedly ended up with blisters on his thumb as the goal light was flicked on an incredible 26 times as visitors Invicta Dynamos hit the ENL Jets for 24 goals in the biggest rout seen this season.
The Jets managed a couple of goals themselves but it was Invicta imports Ryan Ellis with eight goals and Justin Noble with six, that lead the way for the Mo’s with Callum Best, Andy Smith, Nicky Lewis, Dan Fudger and Corey Watkins also on target.
Ali Band and Slough youngster Nathan Darminan both dropped the gloves to give everyone a break from the goal fest including the afore mentioned goal judge, who will no doubt be nursing the ailment formerly known as ‘Mega Drive thumb’ this week.
Streatham travelled to Cardiff with a strong team but came unstuck against the well drilled ENL Devils, losing 8-0 despite a bright start.
Jamie Hayes hit a hat trick and Jordan Powell notched two as the home side continued their good form in the Big Blue Tent. Jason Stone, Chris Jones and Gareth Dixon got the other Cardiff goals.
It was a bad tempered affair pretty much from the starting whistle and it was no surprise when Norm Pinnington eventually squared up with Ross Wilkinson and then Stewart Tait went with Cameron Birrell.
It was a pretty miserable day all round for the Redskins. Captain Ed Koral put his shoulder out, Casimir Madren Britton went down with a bad back, we ran out of sticks as so many snapped and Norm lost his glove. We rolled into London in the early hours of the morning looking back on one of those days you can write off with one word; ‘rancid’.
On the other side of the border from the Cardiff game, Milton Keynes were the visitors to Bristol, hoping to arrest their awful run of form.
Streatham and Romford disagree (Rick Webb)
There was to be no respite however as Bristol won 6-2 thanks to two goals from Jamie Newton and one each for James Warman, Nick Eden, Steven Fisher and Martin Lee.
Milton Keynes goals came from Tom Mboya and Harrison Goode, but their night was made even worse when goalie David Cassidy took a blistering shot from Lee straight in the head and struggled to continue.
Sunday
Chelmsford avenged the previous evenings disappointment by thrashing Bracknell Hornets 15-3 in another one sided clash of the weekend. The visitors travelled with just over two lines and paid the price as hat tricks from Jakub Klima and Danny Hammond did the majority of the damage.
Two goals each for Darren Brown, James Ayling and Ross Brears were added to by solo efforts from Michael Ranby, Gary Clarke and Tom Long. Danny Hughes, Matt Ovenden and Ryan Webb were on target for the visitors.
Romford were the visitors to Brixton as Streatham faced off for the second time in 48 hours. Romford clearly have a better side than us and the league table doesn’t lie, but we gave a good account of ourselves.
Earlier in the season we were pretty much bullied off the ice by the Raiders, but with the likes of Pinnington and Tomas Valko skating around we certainly have a tougher edge than before and it helps in games against sides like Romford who are just as adept at the physical side of the game as they are with the skill of it.
Stefanco on target (icehockeyphotography.co.uk)
The Raiders won 5-2 with two goals from Anthony Leone and lone goals for Juraj Huska, Danny Marshall and Tom Davis sealing the two points. Gennadi Yufit and Stevie Balmer hit the goals for Streatham.
The match boiled over in the third as referee Rene Ross’s failure to clamp down on some x rated incidents in the first two periods lead to retribution being sought on both sides. Valko back doored a Romford forward head first into the boards, after previously getting the same treatment from Shaun Yardley during the first period and all hell broke loose.
Kaminskas, who was already seething after being boarded by an unpunished Pinnington moments earlier, jumped the bench and skated over to blindside Valko and then Redskin Dan Botting jumped from the home bench and was followed by JJ McGrath who also left the bench.
Botting turned round to face the Romford enforcer and managed an unlikely counter and take down despite taking a big blow to the face from the experienced slugger.
McGrath, Kaminskas and Valko were all ejected for their troubles.
At 3-2 down I thought we had momentum and when a puck flew off the back wall and knocked a fan out, thus ending the second period early, it just summed up our season for me. Romford regained composure during the break and then got a soft goal after the restart to rub salt in the wounds.
More broken sticks, more injuries, players disappearing and some inconsistent officiating have not helped our cause so far this year, which was always going to be difficult at the best of times.
The end of season report card for the Redskins will make for entertaining reading regardless of where we end up come the end of March. We just need to keep going and not give up.
Milton Keynes had another good chance to get one over on Bristol as the two sides met for the second time in 48 hours but this time at the Thunderdome.
Sadly for Simon Howard’s men, Bristol took an 8-5 win with a remarkable three goal salvo in the space of a minute rocking the home side.
Maros Stefanco hit a hat trick for the Thunder with Tom Mboya and Harrison Goode getting the other MK goals. Steven Fisher notched four for the Pitbulls with Mike Smith, James Warman, Alan Armour and Martin Lee also on the score sheet.
Results
Saturday 3 March 2012
Bristol Pitbulls 7 – 2 Milton Keynes Thunder
Wightlink Raiders 6 – 2 Chelmsford Chieftains
Cardiff Devils 8 – 0 Streatham Redskins
Slough Jets 2 – 24 Invicta Dynamos
Sunday 4 March 2012
Chelmsford Chieftains 15 – 3 Bracknell Hornets
Milton Keynes Thunder 5 – 8 Bristol Pitbulls
Streatham Redskins 2 – 5 Romford Raiders
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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