SATURDAY 1ST MARCH 2025
Streatham seal Six Point Weekend
Match Report by Chris Beal
Streatham put themselves back in the driving seat in their quest for a 5th league title in a row over the weekend, winning their must win encounter with Slough jets 4-2 on Saturday before securing a full six-point weekend on the Sunday with a 5-3 win at Swindon Wildcats.
Saturdays visit to the Hangar in Slough was a 6-point game, a must win for both sides. With 1 point separating the Jets and RedHawks a win for either side would put the victor in the driving seat in the title race run in of the remaining 5 games.
Streatham are no strangers to these big must win games, having played many of them over the past 5 seasons. And in an arena where they have seldom failed to come away winners, they would have fancied their chances.
The team would look to its experienced players to deliver in this game, and could look no further than the captain Ryan Watt as he opened the scoring for the RedHawks at 4:05 to put the visitors up 1-0.
Slough would push back attempting to force an equalizer, but Danny Milton would stop a series of chances before at 10:42 Danny Ingoldsby would extend the RedHawks lead to 2-0.
The Jets would claw one back before the end of the period as Lewis English would poke home a rebound at 16 minutes to put the Jets within 1, the period closing Streatham 2-1 Jets.
The Jets would come out firing in the second, and looked to have equalized early on, and would fire the puck into the Streatham net seemingly for the equalizer. But the puck had been put in the net after a whistle and was deemed no goal keeping things at 2-1 Streatham.
At 25:28 Danny Ingoldsby would attempt to skate the puck up the centre lane and be slashed by Christian Mohr. Streatham would need just 7 seconds on the resulting power play for Luke Brittle to convert and restore Streatham’s 2 goal lead.
The jets would pull one back again at 27 minutes, as a blown edge for a Streatham defender would leave Connor Redmond in alone on net. Who would fire it past Danny Milton to make it 3-2.
Games between these 2 sides have had plenty of flash points this season and at 34 minutes another one was added to the list. JJ Pitchley would skate in on Jets netminder Matt Smital looking to poke at a puck the goalie was in the process of covering.
Jets players in close attendance took exception to this and Pitchley was first bodychecked after the whistle before former Redhawk Brandon Miles and several other Jets would charge in on Pitchley.
The result was a 5-minute powerplay for Streatham as Miles was ejected on a 5 plus game misconduct penalty.
Aidan Doughty would then convert at 36 minutes to put Streatham two up on the Jets at 4-2. Sneaking the puck between the pad and the post, with referee Goodfellow deeming it a goal after some confusion for the Jets as to if it was a goal.
Despite a lot of pressure by the Jets in the third, a solid rear-guard effort parking the bus by the RedHawks would see the game end Streatham 4-2 Slough.
The following night Streatham having taken the lead in the league table would look to keep winning. Something they will now have to do to maintain that top spot with 4 games left.
A 5-3 win in Swindon, almost proved a banana skin for Coach Paynter’s team. A scoreless first, then saw the Redhawks go 2-0 up as first Ziggy Beesley and then JJ Pitchley put the RedHawks Infront.
Before a Wildcats fight back with goals from Jay Warren, Ben Nethersell and Tom Ashmore put them Infront 3-2.
But Streatham would fight back in the third as first Pitchley would bag the equalizer before Ingoldsby would get the 4th and go-ahead goal. Before sealing things with an empty netter to make it 5-3.
After a six-point weekend, coach Paynter was pleased with his teams buy in and effort on the weekend.
“We knew it was a must win game on Saturday to keep our foot on the gas for the league title and we managed the game perfectly. Everyone bought in to how we wanted to play and it took everyone to do their bit, a complete team performance. Moving onto Saturday I think we were maybe a bit tired from the night before. It wasn’t our best performance of the year but we got it done with a strong 3rd period.”
Every game for Streatham is now a must win crunch game, as the new 3 points for a win format with a 2-point gap over the Jets makes any loss a potential way for the Jets to climb back up to the top.
Up next the Redhawks travel away to Invicta on Sunday 9th March. Before a return to home ice action v MK Thunder on 16th March.