ROMFORD, UK – This season has been one to forget for the Romford Raiders and their fans, and that continued this weekend with another pair of losses.
Two weeks ago, the Raiders experienced what turned out to be a false dawn. They travelled up to Sheffield to face the well-drilled Scimitars team. They had also replaced overworked and underperforming netminder Joe Myers with Charles Kaylor. Former Romford youth product Kaylor returned from America this season and has been backup for Slough Jets. However with the excellent form of Slough’s number one Gregg Rockman, the talented Kaylor’s appearances were limited, and he decided to return home to Romford. He was joined by defenceman David Oliver, who rejoined Romford after spending the season so far with ENL side Invicta.
Romford won that game 4-3, their first away victory of the season, and returned home in good spirits. The side looked to continue this to complete their first four-point weekend of the season the next night, as they faced the same Sheffield side back at Rom Valley Way. However they were taken apart 8-2 as the Scims stepped up several gears from the previous night.
Last weekend saw two terrible results for the Raiders as they faced title challengers Slough Jets and Guildford Flames. Slough have been something of a surprise package this year, and they demolished the Raiders 12-1, with import forward Peter Jasik helping himself to four goals. Darius Pliskauskas scored Romford’s solitary goal. The following night Guildford compounded Romford’s misery by overcoming the home side 10-1. Kaylor in the Romford net faced almost 50 shots, while Pliskauskas scored the only Raiders goal again.
This weekend Romford started at home against Bracknell Bees. The Bees have struggled at times this season, though not as much as the Raiders, and are trying to hang onto the last playoff spot with Swindon breathing down their necks. Bracknell player/coach Claude Dumas scored the only goals of the first period to put the Bees ahead 2-0. Cesky made it 3-0 early in the 2nd, before Romford youngster Evander Grinnell pulled one back. The evergreen Dumas completed his hat-trick before Dean Tonks made it 4-2 late in the second. The third period was all Bracknell as they sealed a 7-2 win with goals from Cesky, Best and Watt.
The following night wasn’t going to get any easier as they played a strong Manchester Phoenix side away. Manchester shot into the lead, and despite a couple of Romford goals from Matt Turner and Frankie Harvey, Phoenix had a commanding 6-2 lead at the end of the first period. To their credit the shortbenched Raiders team never gave up, and contained Manchester superbly in the second period, only conceding with 18 seconds of the period to play. Romford were missing captain and top points scorer Danny Marshall and top import defenceman Jonathon Sitko and it showed, as they visibly tired in the third period, and the game eventually finished 12-3.
There were some small bright spots for the spirited Raiders side, as a lot of their goals at the moment are being scored by youth products such as Matt Turner and Frankie Harvey, both of whom are shining on a struggling team, and 17 year-old netminder Frankie Sabine was given six minutes at the end of the Phoenix game, in which time he didn’t concede. And it is these bright spots that long suffering Raiders fans must cling to during a season of so much disappointment.
Contact the author dave.lambert@prohockynews.com
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