ENL week 27 Round-up

LONDON, UK – Sitting on the ferry across to the Isle of Wight on Saturday, I was amused to notice a large poster campaign featuring various uniformed people with stern faces and arms crossed. The bold slogan boasted; “Keeping anti social behaviour off our Island” and it was an initiative of Hampshire constabulary. With this in mind, match referee Rene Ross could well be paid a visit by the boys in blue this week, after turning what could have been a competitive match between ourselves and Wightlink into a bit of a farce within the first eight minutes. Louis Lockwood put us in front after only three minutes but that was the last piece of good news of the night for the Redskins and our noisy fans.
 
Four minutes later we had three players out injured (with no penalties given) for the rest of the game and Richard Hardy was kicked out for a check to the head. Add a five minute penalty to kill and also a dubious penalty shot decision and we were just pleased to keep the score at 4-1 by the end of the first.
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We didn’t recover and by the end of the game, Wightlink were full value for their 10-2 win, as we limped badly to the final buzzer. I thought Damon Larter was excellent at the back for the Raiders and Andy Robinson worked tirelessly upfront. Dan Hughes got five goals of which at least two were top drawer, however some of his team mates seemed far more interested in making their mouths go or look for fights, despite being seven goals up for most of the second and third. I will never understand the point of that, but then when you have a referee who simply shrugs his shoulders or gives condescending stares when questioned, I guess some players see that as a green light to do what they want. It is perhaps lucky that the Redskins are not a particularly violent side this season; otherwise I am pretty sure it would have kicked off quite badly. While I am on my soapbox about officials, it would be nice to see some consistency with the linesmen. In some games you have linesmen acting as the ref’s third eye and I have seen players kicked out on such advice. Yet in other games they are mute and just watch the puck taking no consideration for observing what is happening behind the play. It really is a lottery, although I will concede to Mr Ross and his team, that officiating on such a small pad must be very difficult with the puck bouncing all over the place.
 
Still, I am sure the home fans enjoyed their night, as did James Udell, Jeremy Cornish, Stuart Tait and Andy Robinson x2, who got the Raiders other goals. The Redskins second goal came courtesy of a long range laser wrist shot from Owen ‘Shoulders’ Murphy, that Raiders goalie Toby Cooley will probably want back.
 
The evening wasn’t a complete disaster however, as we did enjoy a good journey back to London. Perry Richardson spent much of the ferry crossing running around the lounge avoiding a small child who was intent on slashing him with a plastic hockey stick. Whilst the elusive Mr Richardson successfully avoided harm, poor Wightlink Coach Jeremy Cornish accidentally stepped into the line of fire and the kid made no mistake connecting with a two hander. The big man took it well and indeed looked a lot cooler than I did, as I stood in the middle of the boat uncomfortably as the ferry rolled from side to side. I doubt a film depicting a Wightlink ferry plunging into the Solent with two hockey teams and a golden retriever on board would do much at the box office, so it was a relief when we docked safely at Portsmouth.
 
Another team facing a long road trip were the Haringey Greyhounds. The North Londoners travelled to Cardiff without star forward Norm Pinnington. Also missing was first choice goalie James Tipple, who is still injured. Sam Partington stood in between the pipes and had a busy night, along with the goal judge who pressed the red light button 13 times during a game that saw the Devils win easily. Luke Piggott got four goals for the Welsh side and Steve Fisher and David James both got a brace. The rest of the Devils goals came from Armour, Jones, Powell, Dancey and Bowers.
 
Milton Keynes Thunder eyed their home fixture against Oxford as a possible two points, however despite the game being close in the initial stages, the Stars steamrolled their local rivals 9-1. Darren Elliott got a hat trick, Alan Green got two and the Stars other goals came from Nick Oliver, Shannon Taylor, Josh Oliver and Andy Cox. Thunder’s goal came from Tom Davis.
 
On Sunday, a nervous Invicta Dynamos side hosted title hopefuls Bracknell Hornets. The Dynamos needed to win to ease the pressure at the top and came out with all guns blazing. A 3-0 first period lead with goals from Andy Smith, Elliot Andrews and Nicky Lewis did the damage and whilst the Hornets improved they could not pull level. The two men with the most exotic names in ENL hockey James Galazzi and Jack Tarczycki traded punches and the less exotically named Brad Watchorn dropped the gloves with Grant Baxter as the game got feisty.
The score ended 4-2 to the Dynamos with Anthony Leone getting the fourth and Galazzi and Barclay scoring the two Hornets efforts. The result left the Dynamos needing only a point next weekend to clinch the title after Chelmsford did them a huge favour beating Cardiff.
 
Cardiff’s away form has been an issue all season and unfortunately for the Welsh side it bit them hard down at the Riverside. Chelmsford will be delighted with the 6-3 win and even more so with the three shorthanded goals they scored. Blaho Novak scored two for the Chieftains as did Aaron Connelly and the other goals came from Danny Hammond and Jerry Pavlus. Cardiff’s goals came from Tim Burrows x 2 and Luke Piggott.
 
During the week Chelmsford also announced the release by mutual consent of goalie Andy Moffat. Despite being one of the Chieftains big signings of the summer, the Kirkcaldy stopper has hardly played due to a combination of injury and equipment issues. Ben Clements leads the Chieftains into the play offs, and the Chieftains can put Moffat’s alleged wages into the pot for next seasons budget.
 
After hammering us the previous night, Wightlink travelled to Alexandra Palace on Sunday to face the Haringey Greyhounds. The Greyhounds have allegedly cut their squad even further with the old philosophy; ‘better to go with only the committed guys rather than carry a line of players who show up when they feel like it’. It is a brave decision not only because the deadline has passed and therefore replacements are impossible, but also the fact that if the Greyhounds travel again with less than the required players, the league will probably boot them out.
 
Wightlink punished them and completed a four point weekend with an 8-2 victory. Dan Hughes completed a fantastic personal weekend as he scored four goals taking his tally over two days to nine. Wightlink’s other goals came from Damon Larter, Andy Robinson and Jeremy Cornish x 2. Alastair Band dropped the gloves with Cornish but the Wightlink man won.
 
Phillipe Mueller scored a beauty for the Greyhounds and Callum Mathison scored on his Palace return, with both goals assisted by Dave Richards. Wightlink’s Stuart Tait got a nasty cut after his visor pierced him following a punch from Haringey’s Dave Richards but there were to be no further incidents.
 
After smashing nine past MK Thunder the previous evening, Oxford hosted Peterborough Islanders expecting another goalfest. Peterborough are one of Oxford’s bogey teams and raced into a surprising 2-0 lead with goals from Steve Maile and Kieran De’ath. Oxford bounced back soon enough though and six consecutive goals put them in command. The final score ended 10-4 in the Stars favour with their goals coming from 16 year old Mike Whillock x2, Richard Wojciack, Shannon Taylor, Darren Elliot, Ken Forshee, Grant Bailey, Andrew Shurmer and Paul Gore. Steve Maile completed his hat trick to make up the Islanders other goals. A good weekend for the City Stars, who seem to be getting goals from all over the ice at the minute.
 
With Haringey losing, two points for MK Thunder at Streatham would see them ease away from their relegation rivals. After a frustrating night on the island the night before, it was nice to have a quick opportunity to get back on the ice and make amends. We knew that a win would make it mathematically impossible for us to be sucked into the relegation play off scrap.
 
Pre game we discussed whether we would get away with wearing our newly purchased pirate eye patches on the blue line for the national anthem but Spoursy (Redskins coach) wisely advised that if we lost we would look like idiots. He recalled a time when his unbeaten Streatham team travelled to Nottingham back in the day and all drew moustaches on themselves with felt tip to take the mick out of a former player in the Nottingham line up. Streatham lost the game and felt pretty stupid afterwards.
 
So minus the eye patches and fully focused on the game we came up against a tireless Thunder side who came out quite physical in the first. I have to be honest and admit it was not a game for the neutral in the initial stages and its scrappy nature was a throwback to the league 2 years ago. I think the reason both sides have perhaps struggled this season is a lack of depth that the other teams have. Hard working performances from a number of Redskins, most notably Liam Rasmussen made the difference, however without pumping his tyres too much, Peter Molnar was immense and scored a hat trick of which one of the goals was worthy of a higher league.
 
The 7-3 victory for the Redskins was a big blow to the Thunder’s survival hopes, but important for us in front of a smaller than usual home crowd. Redskins other goals came from Liam Rasmussen x 2, Chris Wittenberg and Louis Lockwood. Mr Lockwood also got a nasty puck in the face which saw blood spurt all over the manicured Streatham ice. Thankfully Thunder physio Nefra Germain stepped across the bench to fix him up, but quite what she thought when he slipped on his pirate eye patch over his bloodied face and saluted the delighted crowd, well I don’t know! The only other point of note was a big hit by Thunders Paul Jamieson on Caz Britton that was so hard it cracked the boards and put a piece of plexi glass out of its slot. Jamieson also got one of the Thunders goals to add to goals from Luke Spriggs and Martyn Snape.
 
The title race now looks a foregone conclusion but the relegation play off place is still no closer to resolution. With MK ahead of Haringey on goal difference but level on points, next weekend is massive for both teams.
 
I may not be involved in the play offs in a playing capacity but as a neutral/closet Oxford fan, I think its going to be really exciting. All six teams are strong at home but edgy away so it will be wide open.
 
Thanks for reading and stay safe.
 
Carrsy
 
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com