March 27th 1999, Women's League Division One - South
Following the teams previous 0-0 draw at Riverside, and with both teams desperate for all the points they could get to improve their chances of making the end of season playoffs at Humberside, this was always going to be a battle.
Cobras were up against it from the start, being without captain Emma Stott who was suffering from tonsillitis, and their cause wasn't helped at all, when firstly Rachael Mockler, and then Marianne Wright took minor penalties which put the Cobras two players short-handed, and having survived the first penalty the Romford pressure finally paid off, with Zoe Gilbert scoring after Jo Abbs' initial shot was saved.
This setback seemed to spur the Cobras on, and they were able to mount some pressure of their own, only to see the Nighthawks break, and Stacy Mayo score their second. Shortly after this, Romford hit penalty trouble of their own, but despite a two-player advantage, and a number of promising attacks, Chelmsford were unable to capitalise. Shortly before the end of the period, Rachel Kearn skated onto a rink wide pass from Becky Preen, and was able to open the Cobras' account.
The second period saw both teams trying to take a grip on the game, and the opening minutes were evenly shared, but after five minutes, Hayley Wallace was able to guide a shot from the blue line through a crowd into the Cobras net, and this was followed seconds later by the Nighthawks fourth, from Sophie Gilbert.
After this lapse, the Cobras' started to exert some pressure of their own, and with just over four minutes left in the period seemed to have scored, when Katy Allen put the puck under the Romford goalie, but following a discussion with the goal judge, this was ruled out, much to the Cobras' disgust.
Going into the third, and Chelmsford had to come out firing to try and reverse the deficit, however, within two minutes, Romford had scored a fifth, and the Cobras were again short-handed. Chelmsford successfully killed the penalty, but despite putting some pressure on, the luck wasn't going their way, and Romford scored two more goals to finish the scoring.
Chelmsford coach, Tom Bradford echoed the thoughts of the Cobras' team and supporters, when he said, "the scoreline didn't reflect the level of play".
Players of the game were, Jen Stedman for Chelmsford, and Hayley Wallace for Romford.
Next Cobras game is Saturday 10th April, at Cardiff, against the league champions, Cardiff Comets.
Scoring:
Romford: Zoe Gilbert 2+3(0), Stacy Mayo 2+0(2), Sophie Gilbert 1+1(0), Debbie Jeffers 1+1(0), Hayley Wallace 1+0(0), Amanda Johnson 0+1(2), Jo Abbs 0+1(2), Vicki Arnold 0+0(2)
Chelmsford: Rachel Kearn 1+0(0), Rachael Mockler 0+0(2), Marianne Wright 0+0(4)