Mixed fortunes at Riverside

CHELMSFORD,U.K- With the season now two weeks old the Chelmsford Chieftains have had mixed fortunes at the beginning of their English National League 2 (South) campaign. Starting out with an away tie against close rivals the Romford Spitfires, the Chieftains found the game fairly easy going and picked up a comfortable 7-2 win on the road. Many fans predicted games would be like this week in, week out, especially with the strong side that Dean Birrell had put together, full of players with English Premier League experience and also English National League 1 experience. In amongst that were also a range of young players who are being looked upon to be the foundation for a solid future for the club. Elsewhere in the league that weekend the unfancied Vectis Tigers picked up two huge wins and really got people to sit up and take notice of them. However within days it was revealed that they had iced a banned player and both results were reversed to a 5-0 defeat, thus giving the points to Invicta Mustangs and Lee Valley Lions. The Mustangs would travel to the Riverside this past weekend for a match which many predicted would be similar in scoreline to their game against Vectis and the Chieftains could score points for fun. It was not to be as the Mustangs battled hard and didn’t let the Chieftains get into the flow of the game and the home side had to work very hard to get a 5-5 draw with the Kent side. With some farcical officiating as well as indiscipline and poor performances from the Chieftains , the Mustangs were grateful to come away with a point as they expected to be hammered. Man of the match for the Mustangs, the experienced Kevin Lake, commented, “Our goalie (16-year old Sam Robinson) stood on his head tonight and really gave us a lot of confidence, the Chieftains struggled at times, but to come away with a point from here is great for us and totally unexpected, we knew after the drubbing on the Isle of Wight last weekend that we would have to pick our game up and give ourselves a confidence boost and tonight we did just that,” Lake said.  Chieftains coach Dean Birrell was not as happy about the result. “Too many of the boys had an off night tonight and we have to work on that for next week, It was a wake up call we needed and hopefully some players will not go into games taking it easy in future,” Birrell said. Elsewhere at the club player changes have happened already with Robert Young deciding not to play this season after all and concentrating on his educational studies in Hull. Also leaving the club is Adrian Woodyard who was released by the club the week before the season began for reasons unknown. The club was quick to add to the squad signing Rudi Dzurko who had been training with the club. Having previously played for HC Polygón Prievidza in the Slovak u-20 Extraliga, Dzurko brings a lot of experience and skill with him. His main strengths lie in his physical play in defence and his mid-ice hitting ability. He is also not afraid to square up to players who take liberties with his teammates. Speaking to Birrell after Sunday’s debut against Invicta, he was impressed with what he saw. “There is a lot more to come from Rudi, I think he tried too hard tonight and made mistakes, but he stood up well to some players who were taking some shots on our players and they soon backed down and I think with a bit of guidance about channelling his strength and physicality, he should soon become a big hit with the Chieftains fans,” Birrell said.  On top of that the club continues to be without Gary Brown who is recovering from an operation on a leg injury and aims to return by mid to late November. A piece of welcome news for the club is that forward Nathanael Williams has now returned from his summer holidays and should be in the team for this Saturday’s trip to Basingstoke to face the Buffalo and also the home game on Sunday in the ENL Cup against the MK Thunder. Looking ahead to these games Birrell was confident of good performances and a turnaround from this weekends poor showing against the Mustangs. “I think it will be tough for us, as will all games but I think we now know not to underestimate sides an we will be going all out to make sure we put right the errors and problems from the game against Invicta,” Birrell said. “I have a few guys coming training with us this week too, so we may even have a couple of extra bodies on the bench this weekend, should the paperwork go through if they impress me enough to get a deal offered.” Contact the author at Pete.lewis@prohockeynews.com