With two games to play, both against Basingstoke Bison, Cobras entered Sunday's game at Riverside needing one win to win the league. Basingstoke needed to win to be in with a chance of winning the league. Previous games were uppermost in the player's minds. Having lost 0-1 at home in January and winning 9-2 last week at Basingstoke they knew this was going to be a close game.
The game started at a hectic pace with Cobras attacking the Bison's and thwarting all their breakout attempts. At 3.17 the deadlock was broken when Tereza Plankova received a pass from Gabbi Gunn to put Cobras ahead.
This stung the Bison's into action and within two minutes at 5.54 they had equalised with a goal from Lisa Collingwood, the leagues top scorer. The rest of the period was end to end with both defences keeping the score to 1-1.
The second period opened much the same as the first had ended, both teams going all out to score. 3.46 into the period Gabbi Gunn passed to Charmaine Easton who wrong footed the defence and put the puck past Lita-Lee Jarrold in the Bison's net. At 9.56 Bison's had a quick break out through the Cobras' defence with Collingwood passing to Emma Toose who put the puck past Jess Bowman to level the score at 2-2. Bison's confidence was again high as they attacked the Cobras net from the restart but at 10.37 Elle Paxman skated through the Bison's defence to score Cobras 3rd goal. That's how the period ended, Cobras leading 3-2.
During the interval both teams coaches psyched their players up for this all important game. Both teams playing attacking hockey but being equally balanced out by good defending. A tense time for supporters of both teams but a spectacle of fine women's hockey. As the hooter sounded the end of the game the Cobras erupted into joyous celebration, the first time they have won the league since 1996, having been runners up the last two seasons.
They now go into the play offs at Sheffield on 23rd and 24th May to play for promotion to the Premier league.
The next home game is a challenge match against Cambridge Uni on 9th May at 5.30.