ENL South Round-up week 26

LONDON, UK – Streatham post a famous victory over their rivals and Invicta defenseman Ryan Giles decides that not only is Saturday alright for fighting, but Sunday is too. The ENL South continues at the business end of the season.

 
It was a relatively quiet week in the ENL South prior to some crunch clashes at the weekend. The EIHA added a twist to the relegation battle as they awarded the previously cancelled Slough v Milton Keynes game as a 1-1 tie as fixture congestion hits some teams.
 
The point gained by Slough as a result of the decision gave Streatham an even bigger gap to reduce to avoid relegation, however on the plus side; Slough could have won that game and taken a two point advantage.
 
Bristol Pitbulls Coach Richie Hargreaves could not hide his joy at his side making the play offs in an interesting interview with the Bristol Evening Post.
 
“Getting to the play-offs was our first target at the start of the campaign, so to achieve it with six games of the regular season remaining is a fantastic effort” said Hargreaves, whose side failed to qualify for the latter stages last season.
 
“The players deserve a lot of credit for the way they have played, particularly over the last month or so. We’re six games unbeaten in a run of fixtures that has included three of the best sides in the league”
 
“The guys are really in the zone right now at a perfect time and confidence couldn’t be any higher. We had a lot of new players come to us during the off-season and it did take us a bit of time to gel”
 
“We couldn’t throw a stone into the ocean for the first few weeks of the season and then we’ve also had to battle against injuries for a lot of the campaign”
 
Whilst it would take a miracle for any man to reach an ocean by throwing a stone from any part of the city of Bristol, Hargreaves and his team have to be admired for the progress his side have made over their short history.
 
In Eggy Bauba they have a genuine top import at this level, and the likes of Steve Osman and Steven Fisher are a constant goal threat. They won’t be a pushover for any side in the play-offs.
 
Cardiff ENL Devils forward Chris Hart reflected on the previous weekend’s action in an interview with the Inferno website.
 
“Streatham was a great disciplined team performance for us, the game could have swung a little bit in the other direction if we had let things get to us” explained the Cardiff forward, who started the season in Germany.
 
“I thought that Luke Takel in net for us really did a great job and is starting to push Brabs (Mike Brabon), it’s a great position for us to be in having to goalies who can both step up to the mark when we need it”
 
“Isle of Wight away is a big game for the third spot if we can turn them over on their own ice, which is always a big ask, it would really mix things up in the standings and give us a good chance of getting that third spot”
 
“As we found out two weeks ago we need to come back ready to play on Sunday ahead of Bristol, who are no push over and have shown the character they have pulling back from 5 – 1 down to get a draw last time we played them”
 
Streatham Redskins coach Barry Spours was in defiant mood during the week as he told the Streatham Guardian that his team would not be giving up in their bid to avoid the drop, whilst looking forward to the game against Invicta.
 
“It was good to feel we were actually in a game with the league leaders and they were playing full tilt as well, not just going through the motions” said Spours in reference to the previous weekend’s loss against Romford Raiders.
 
“Invicta is a big challenge as they seem to have upped their game lately and absolutely annihilated Slough last weekend with that 24-2 win”
 
“But, if we play how we did on Sunday, I fancy us giving them a good game”
 
For any readers who missed it, Pro Hockey News featured a big piece on the title race between Romford and Chelmsford with predictions and insights from the likes of Jeremy Cornish, Kevin Parrish, Simon Howard and Alan Armour.
 
It is always interesting to read opinions from those within the game and all four offered lengthy thoughts on both teams so if you haven’t read the article yet make sure you check it out.
 
 
Saturday
 
Invicta headed to Brixton for the first time ever with their noisy contingent of travelling fans, and must have been reasonably confident of beating Streatham after smashing Slough and Milton Keynes in recent weeks. It always sounds wise after the event to say that I thought we could get something from the game, but I did, despite an ill-advised pre game pledge on Facebook to put £50 behind the bar of the Canterbury Arms if we managed to win.
 
Streatham took a first win in twelve games and the first in the new rink with a famous 4-3 win. Dax Hedges, Jerry Pavlus, Gennadi Yufit and Liam Rasmussen got the goals for the Redskins with Ryan Ellis, Callum Best and Justin Noble all on target.
 
In my humble opinion, the difference between the sides was Norm Pinnington. He has been getting better and better every game and he must be an absolute pain in the rear to play against with his 100% work rate every shift and the finishing of his hits.
 
Add in the fact that he is tough and can stand up for himself (he had another fight during this game with the willing Ryan Giles), and you have the kind of player that Streatham have been crying out for since I joined them three years ago. The fact that Tomas Valko is on Norm’s line and back on form and at his irritating best, means that the Redskins now have a hard centre that was definitely missing earlier in the season.
 
Invicta fans (those of you still reading) please forgive me for droning on, but on a personal level it was the first time I have been on a winning side against Invicta since Oxford beat them in 2004. I barely touched the ice after the first period as our bench was shortened but it was still a great feeling to skate across to our fans and see everyone smiling and celebrating as if they had won the lottery. Oh and the bill at the bar came to £60 afterwards – worth every penny.
 
Cardiff travelled to Wightlink in a game that saw two form teams go head to head in Ryde.
 
Wightlink ended up as 8-5 winners to make it 11 games unbeaten on their own ice. Richard Facey hit a hat trick with Alex Murray and Kieron Annis both hitting two each for the Raiders with Dan Murdy getting the other.
 
James Preece and Louis Lockwood both hit a brace for Cardiff with Ricky Deacon also on target.
 
Steve Gosset jumped Jordan Powell with a few minutes remaining on the clock, before hot headed Cardiff goalie Mike Brabon tangled with opposite number Liam McAllister during the handshakes to add extra talking points to the game.
 
Sunday
 
The biggest game of the evening took place in Kent where the wounded Dynamos aimed to bounce back against the Wightlink Raiders.
 
It was the Dynamos who took the two points thanks to a 4-1 win in front of their own fans. Callum Best hit two for Invicta with Ryan Ellis and Mike Timms also getting on the score sheet. Arran Strawson hit the lone goal for the Raiders.
 
The game sparked into life with just three minutes gone as a brave Ryan Giles dropped the gloves with the experienced Wightlink fighter Cornish to set an early tone.
 
Whether Gilesy had spent the week listening to Power Ballads II or the Gladiators album (the one from the game show featuring the lovely Jet, rather than the Russell Crowe film) is not known, however for the young Dynamo to drop the gloves with both Pinnington and Cornish in one weekend, he must have been pretty psyched and is probably happy to be not visiting the dentist on Monday morning for fillings and a slurp of the pink drink. Fair play to him.
 
Romford and Chelmsford both had relatively easy games as they had home ties against Slough and Milton Keynes respectively.
 
Romford had the biggest win as they demolished Slough 13-2, despite missing the banned Andrius Kaminskas who started his two game suspension this weekend. Slough took just two lines to Rom Valley Way and suffered thanks to hat tricks from Juraj Huska, Billy Phillips and Grant Taylor.
 
Anthony Leone hit a brace, and JJ Pitchley and AJ Smith completed the scoring. Stuart Mogg and Ed Temple scored the goals for Slough.
 
Chelmsford beat Milton Keynes 9-0 thanks to goals from Alan Green with three, Danny Hammond with two, and Tom Avery, Jakub Klima, Darren Elliott and Gary Clarke with lone goals.
 
Milton Keynes also travelled with a short bench, but there was good news for Connor Goode as he got a call up to the Premier league Milton Keynes Lightning for their game against Peterborough Phantoms.
 
The last game of the evening took place in Cardiff as local rivals Bristol Pitbulls paid a visit to the Big Blue Tent.
 
It ended as an unhappy return for former Devils Alan Armour and Steven Fisher as they ended up on the wrong side of a 6-2 score line.
 
All eyes are now on next weekend as the Raiders go head to head with all Chelmsford fans and players hoping that the Wightlink version triumph over the Romford one.
 
 
Results
 
Saturday 10th March 2012
 
Streatham Redskins 4 – 3 Invicta Dynamos  
Wightlink Raiders 8 – 5 Cardiff Devils
 
Sunday 11th March 2012
 
Invicta Dynamos 4 – 1 Wightlink Raiders  
Romford Raiders 13 – 2 Slough Jets  
Chelmsford Chieftains 9 – 0 Milton Keynes Thunder  
Cardiff Devils 6 – 2    Bristol Pitbulls
 
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com