Raiders fall to Redskins

ROMFORD, UK – The Raiders posted perhaps their poorest performance of the season so far as they went down 5-3 to the Streatham Redskins at Rom Valley Way on Sunday evening. Streatham avenged last weekends’ 10-1 hammering in Romford as they capitalised on a stream of mistakes from the home side to win in spite of a lengthy list of absentees.

Romford, playing their only game of the weekend, were sloppy and uncertain for most of the evening. Turnovers in their own end became commonplace as the game wound on, whilst a lack of anything resembling a passing game saw Danny Marshall’s men restricted to an endless parade of point shots that seldom troubled Will Sanderson in the Redskins’ goal. The trio of Frankie Harvey, Marshall and Juraj Huska – 6 goals and 11 points vs. the Redskins last weekend – failed to exert themselves on a Streatham defence that eliminated the passing lanes and smothered the Raiders play down low. Huska looked lively in picking up a pair of assists, but the combination play of last weekends big win just wasn’t there for Romford‘s top line. Streatham jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the second period owing to goals by Tomas Valko (2) and Liam Rasmussen. Rasmussen beat Raiders’ goaltender Michael Gray with a snap-shot from the left of the crease after just 90 seconds, whilst Valko scored his first from in front after strong work by Dan Marashi and then bagged his second 30 seconds in to the second period when his breakaway wrist-shot trickled through Gray and across the line. Glen Jackson subsequently came in for Gray as the Raiders looked to stop the bleeding. Romford temporarily threatened a comeback when Joe Allen and Anthony Leone scored in quick succession to reel the Streatham lead back to 3-2, but Valko’s third of the night a matter of seconds after Leone’s powerplay tally all but ended any hopes of a Raider comeback. Jackson barely saw the puck fly past him as Valko fired off from between the circles to stake Streatham to a two-goal lead once more. Russell Stevens and Marshall would trade goals in the latter half of the game, Stevens capitalising on a dreadful turnover in the defensive end to beat Jackson one-on-one and Marshall scrambling home after excellent work from Huska behind the net. In truth though, the game had been dead as a contest for quite some time. Romford’s passing game deserted them as Streatham continued to take advantage of neutral zone turnovers and giveaways. The Raiders failed to make use of a number of big rebounds given up by Sanderson in the Streatham goal and were largely restricted to pot-shots from distance that rarely troubled the ‘Skins netminder; a frustrating evening for the home side, but one they’ll be all too eager to rebound from in a double-header against Bracknell next weekend. Contact the author – alex.nunn@prohockeynews.com