Streatham coach praises players as they earn derby win over Raiders

By David Carr

Streatham head coach Jeremy Cornish praised his players for their commitment after they bounced back from a heavy defeat in Swindon to beat Romford-based London Raiders in a feisty derby.

The RedHawks slumped to an 8-3 loss in front of a 1,000-plus crowd in Wiltshire, their heaviest road loss of the season. Wildcats forward Floyd Taylor was the star of the show with a hat-trick, while the hosts netminder Renny Marr denied the RedHawks time and time again at the other end of the ice.

On Sunday the RedHawks opened the scoring on 24 seconds through Adam Carr and never looked back, leading 4-1 at one stage thanks to a brace from the league’s Player of Month Michael Farn and a lone goal from Andreas Siagris. The Raiders rallied late on, with tempers flaring but Streatham held on to seal two important points.

“The game against Swindon was a real tough one, we went down two goals early and didn’t look at all like we would be able to come back.” said Cornish.

“Swindon on home ice was a much different team to the one we beat at our rink before Christmas. They have made some line-up improvements and look to be running on all cylinders now. They may even take a run at the league now, even though they are currently sitting in third.

“We bounced back in fine form against London the following night. Even though they brought it back to 4-3 we weren’t panicking to close it out. To beat any team in our league we need to skate and keep the puck as much as possible.

“That sounds like a relatively easy gameplan, but to find that consistency every game is tough for any team to do.  We have the players that want to make it work and their commitment to the team has been second-to-none all season long.”

This weekend the team face a banana skin in South Wales against bottom-placed Cardiff Fire, a team they only narrowly beat in their last encounter. The following evening the RedHawks host title-chasing Peterborough Phantoms in South London, the only team they have yet to beat this season.

“Its another big weekend ahead for us,” said Cornish. “Last time we played in Cardiff we we’re pretty lucky to escape with the two points, so we will try our hardest to make sure we don’t make that mistake again.”

“We haven’t seen Peterborough for a while. If we skate and play the way we can, we have the opportunity to win and climb the table.”