Going into this game, the understaffed Cobras were up against it, Basingstoke had won their three previous games this season, by a total margin of 52-3. However, in the face of adversity the unexpected can happen, and so it did at Riverside on Saturday. The Cobras managed to absorb a seemingly unending stream of pressure from their visitors as they were outshot 63-11, but managed to restrict the Lady Bison to 5 goals.
As soon as the game started the Cobras were under pressure, but netminder Charline Forrester put up a solid performance, and denied Basingstoke until the sixth minute when player of the game, Emma Toose opened the scoring. This seemed to inspire the Cobras into one of their best spells, and they came close a couple of times with Jen Stedman and Rachael Mockler, however it was only a matter of time before the Lady Bison struck again, and Helen Stowe notched their second with three minutes left in the period. The floodgates threatened to open when Basingstoke thought they had scored again within seconds of the restart, but when the goal was disallowed due to a player in the crease this gave the Cobras new heart, and they went into the break 2-0 down having been outshot 24-6, with the worst scare coming as the buzzer sounded when Becky Preen cleared the uncovered puck off the line.
In the second period, Basingstoke came out on fire, and within five minutes had doubled their lead, through Toose and Donna Shergold. The Cobras managed to quash the offensive threat for the remainder of the period, with some sterling saves again from Charline Forrester in the goal.
In the final stanza it was more of the same, as the Lady Bison outshot the Cobras 23-3, but they were only able to score one goal, and that was short-handed, on a breakaway, Cobras had a couple of chances, notably from Emma Stott early in the period, but most of their attacks were stifled by the Basingstoke defence before they were able to get a shot on goal.
Cobras player of the match award was shared between netminder Charline Forrester and rookie Laura Sullivan.
The next Cobras action sees them visiting the Lady Bison on 27th December, and they play again at Riverside on January 3rd, at 5:15pm against Cardiff Comets.
Scoring:
Cobras: Kimberly Hales 0+0(2)
Lady Bison: Emma Toose 2+0(0), Donna Shergold 1+1(0), Helen Stowe 1+1(2), Sharon Clements 1+0(0), Maria Willis, Julie Lossnitzer 0+1(0)