Bees struggle without Spearing
Streatham 5 Bracknell Bees 3
BRACKNELL’S poor form continued with defeat at struggling Streatham.
Bees are now on a seven-match losing run stretching back to November 5 and have fallen five points off the pace in the league.
There are mitigating factors with injured duo Scott Spearing and Shaun Thompson still missing, but Bees did welcome back previously suspended star man Frankie Bakrlik on Sunday.
Former Bee Carl Thompson also came into the side having re-signed for the club last week as cover for brother Shaun.
The visitors were quick out of the blocks with Thompson and Bakrlik combining to tee up Josh Martin, but he couldn’t find a way past netminder Matthew Colclough.
With Bakrlik heavily marked, it was down to the rest of the Bees squad to find the breakthrough and they did exactly that on the eightminute mark when Alex Barker won the puck and released Callum Best. He in turned set up George Norcliffe to squeeze a shot beyond Colclough.
The hosts levelled before the end of the first period through Michael Farn and they got their noses in front shortly after the restart when Ryan Watt fired in.
But the game was level again soon after following good work by Ben Ealey-Newman and Jared Lane to tee up James Galazzi, who made no mistake.
Yet 13 seconds later, Streatham led again. The hosts broke through and found themselves two-on-one straight from the restart as Watt bagged his second of the night.
Alex Sampford added a fourth to open up a two-goal cushion and Bracknell struggled to build up any momentum in the third stanza.
But they did threaten a late comeback when Martin fired in and with 90 seconds on the clock, netminder Alex Mettam was pulled to throw on an extra outfield skater.
Streatham defended well and sealed the 5-3 win when Ryan Webb knocked the puck into the empty net.
It’s another weekend of National Cup action for Bracknell with Telford Tigers visiting The Hive on Saturday before the reverse fixture the following night (both 6pm).