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The
Fury hosted the ENIHL’s new team from Bristol at RVW on
Saturday. Icing a much depleted squad with only four
defencemen after an injury to captain Paul Merchant, and
also missing Peters, Grinell, Paris and Braithwaite up
front, the match was always going to be a struggle against
the Pitbulls. They are coached by ex-Elite league Richard
Hargreaves and have his brother Michael as captain, a
formidable pair who have formed this new team into a unit
who play fast, physical hockey and their performance was
admired by many fans who commented that they would love to
see Romford play this type of game.
The
statistics indicate a very one sided game, and although
possession was probably in the order of 65 – 35% in favour
of Bristol, Romford held them at bay for long periods of the
match. Unfortunately they couldn’t penetrate their defence
and had only 16 shots on goal, while at the other end, Man
of the Match, Dan Kruse faced 56. The goal difference would
have been much greater had it not been for the Fury goalie
having a great day.
Bristol started at a furious pace and found the net after 31
seconds, and continued to pile on the pressure. Fans were
surprised at the penalty call in the 5th minute
when the Romford goalie was floored by a Bristol player as
he skated past, and although no doubt accidental, many
thought he should have received a goalie interference call
if not a misconduct. However Joe Berry did receive a
misconduct as he came off the bench to remonstrate with the
Bristol player involved. Bristol added a second goal on a
powerplay just before the break, as the puck escaped Kruse
through his five hole and trickled over the line. It was one
on one of the four periods of shorthanded hockey that the
Fury had to defend during this first session.
The
remaining two periods followed in the same vein, with most
of the action in the Fury zone, but Bristol found it hard to
score at even strength, and only capitalised on two
powerplays, one in each session to run out 4 – 0 winners.
The
Fury are on the road for their next three games visiting
Bristol in two weeks time followed by games at Lee Valley
and Swindon.
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