Romford V Manchester and the way forward

ROMFORD, UK – At the end of this past week I wondered what to do on Saturday night as the Chieftains had no game. I looked up the fixture lists for the other teams near me and none stood out to attend, but then I saw that Romford were playing host to Manchester Phoenix. “Great” I thought “A chance to return to Rom Valley Way for the first time in a couple of years”. The Chieftains no longer play in the EPL with the Raiders, due to their drop to the ENL 2008, so I hadn’t seen the Raiders play for a couple of years. RVW is never a nice place to go for an away fan. Back in the day, I used to go there 2-3 times a season and hated every minute of it. The fans are loud, passionate, proud and did not make it comfortable for opposing fans. But, and this is a big but, once that final buzzer went the home fans were some of the fairest and friendliest around. Go into the bar after the game and you could spend a good amount of time discussing hockey with some very knowledgeable fans and to be honest some of my best hockey friends are Romford fans, or at least were until they gave up going.  Anyway, back to Saturday night and the Phoenix were in town with the likes of Tony Hand MBE and Andre Payette in their ranks, but sadly not ‘Captain Beaky’ as the announcer called former NHL’r Ed Courtenay. I sat at the edge of the home fans block closest to the away fans to try and get a balanced view of how the fans were viewing the game and the expectation before the opening face-off was one of ‘We’re going to win’ and that came from both sets of fans. You might not think that Romford fans would be thinking that looking at the league table. Romford have played 46 games and picked up just 14 points, whereas Manchester have played 45 and gained 58 points but have had a bad run as of late as documented by Mike Appleton on here. The game was evenly balanced play-wise in the first period and ending it at 2-4 wasn’t a bad place to be for the Raiders. I think many expected Romford to continue to make a game of it for the next 40mins, however a second period collapse, thanks in part to some dubious decisions from the officials, meant the game was over as a contest after 2 periods. ‘Fortress RVW’, as it used to be called by home and away fans alike, would never allow a team to get too far in front and be cruising. However, other than a few hits and the odd push there was little fight from the Raiders and I am sure I heard a brief chant of “What a load of rubbish” from the home fans. Certainly the fans around me had some rather more colourful words to describe the Romford performance! With a 2-10 final score to the Lancastrians, it was a one-sided game once the first period ended. The standard of play from the Phoenix wasn’t that great to be honest and only their top line looked particularly dangerous and it was the Hagelberg-Hand-Walker line that netted with regularity. But it was rather fun to watch a game as neutral and, in the nicest possible way, not actually care who won or lost.

Many friends and acquaintances had said to me prior to the game “It’s really bad there now” and “I wouldn’t bother going mate. Even I don’t go any more” (This was from someone who 2-3 years back would NEVER have dreamt of missing a Raiders game!). I understand in recent weeks the Raiders performances have improved and, it pains me to say it, if that was an improvement then I dread to think how bad it was before.   One fan said to me during the game “It’s so quiet here and the Raiders just don’t look like the Romford of old where they’d make sure you knew you’d been to RVW even if you had won by half a dozen goals!” A comment from a friend later in the evening, when they were informed of the score, “I just can’t bring myself to defend them now. It’s not a Romford team anymore. The grit and fight and ‘never say die’ attitude left the club a long time ago”. Sad times indeed to see hard-core fans of the Raiders talking like that . I know some Romford fans don’t like people criticising their team but unfortunately the cold hard fact is that Romford just don’t look competitive at this level any more. I know it’s easier to support a winning team but the mark of a true fan is one that backs the team through thick and thin It was good see so many familiar faces still going, but sadly some noticeable absentees and a big change in atmosphere both on and off the bench.Some would say that things began to change way back when the BNL collapsed and the so-called ‘moneybags’ teams like Guildford Flames and Bracknell Bees dropped into the EPL and in turn forced the existing sides to up their spending to keep up. Once Romford’s rivals like the Chieftains and Wightlink Raiders dropped out of the EPL due to not being able to finance it anymore the writing was being scrawled on the wall for Romford. Sad to say more and more Romford fans are beginning to see the writing for what it is and that is to say that the club just can’t continue at this level any more, both financially and on the ice. The club owner, John Scott, has done wonders to get the team on the ice throughout the season and should be applauded by the hockey world for stepping in when it really did appear that the club would go out of business when the previous owners left their post. Scott this week announced he would not be continuing on next season as owner and has given plenty of time for new management to come in and start building for next season. However with the way their season has gone this year it may well be a case of ‘building for the ENL’. The EPL would be a worse place without the East London/Essex team for sure, but the ENL South would greatly improve and with the lower costs involved and the prospect of more local derbies and some new rinks to visit and new teams coming to Romford, it could be an exciting future for the Romford Raiders, which is perhaps a better prospect than another season at the wrong end of the EPL. I hate to sound so negative about the evening, but with an 8 goal deficit to describe, there isn’t much to be too positive about. Contrary to what some Romford fans will think, I don’t take any pleasure in writing these words. It isn’t all bad though. There are some very bright prospects for the Raiders in the shape of Matt Turner, Joe Allen and Frankie Harvey. Those 3, along with stalwarts like Danny Marshall and Tyrone Miller, should be a nice nucleus to build a team around in the future. I know if the Raiders come down to the ENL, I’d happily take any or all of those 5 at the Riverside in Chieftains colours!
Got a comment? Pete.Lewis@Prohockeynews.com