Streatham RedHawks hat-trick hero: Team-mates set it up for me

Streatham forward Ben Ealey-Newman hailed unsung heroes on his line, after his overtime winner against Chelmsford Chieftains sent the large home crowd wild at the Streatham Arena last Sunday.

The 24-year-old added to a hat-trick the previous evening against Romford, with two more goals in a fixture the RedHawks were desperate to win, after losing in Essex to the Chieftains a fortnight ago.

“It was nice to get back to putting the puck in the net, especially in overtime on Sunday,” admitted Ealey-Newman, who joined the club this summer.

“Realistically I probably don’t score a few of those goals this weekend if it’s not for some of those set-ups from my line mates Vanya (Antonov) and Scott (Bailey). For the overtime winner there was a great pick in the play by James Warman that took two of their guys out, to give me the lane through the middle.

“That kind of thing often goes unnoticed but we put together some great team play over both games”

A two-week break seemed to have come at the worst time for Michael Farn’s men after a nervy win over Invicta and loss against Chelmsford before their scheduled weekend off.

But they started the weekend with a surprising 9-1 demolition of Romford in Essex.

That came thnks to Ealey-Newman’s hat-trick and a brace each from Brandon Miles and Ryan Watt, plus lone goals from Danny Ingoldsby and Scott Bailey.

Ealey-Newman added: “We started great, which we needed to do against a young and fast team like Romford.

“We knew we had to try kill some of their momentum early and we certainly did that.

“The most pleasing thing was every line was flying over the weekend, especially with a stretched defence. Warms [James Warman], Millique [Martelly], Cookie [Andrew Cook] and Jord [Gregory] all had a tough 120 minutes to get through, and Paynts [Ben Paynter] too. It shows what a team effort it really was against two fast and skilled teams.”

The results keep Streatham at the top of the league ahead of rivals Invicta Dynamos in second place.

Streatham host Milton Keynes Thunder at the High Road tomorrow, followed by a Halloween crunch clash against Invicta in Kent on Sunday.

Player Coach Michael Farn is still ruled out through injury.