Coach Alley hails Lee Valley Lions win

Defending champions Chelmsford beaten

Lee Valley Lions coach George Alley wants his side to build on their fine win over defending National League Division Two champions Chelmsford Warriors.

Chris Fox and Ross Sin-Hidge scored two goals apiece, with captain Nick Alley and Henry Aiken also on target in a 6-4 success.

And Alley was delighted to see them claim a first success on home ice this season, saying: “I’m happy for the players more than anything. We’ve been very close on a few occasions so it’s good to see us close out a tight game.

“We know we’ve been capable of winning regularly, but it’s convincing ourselves that we’re good enough that takes time.

“Mentally we hadn’t adjusted to being a good team, and that would manifest in us throwing leads away or over-celebrating goals.

“Our results state that we are very rarely out of contention, but we can’t rely on one win to be the making of our season.

“We were more consistent. We still made some silly mistakes and at 3-3 we could easily have thrown the game away but instead, the players knuckled down and I’m proud of the way they responded.

“We need to back the performances up every week, regardless of opponent, or who’s in the squad come game day.”

Lions remain fifth in the six-team group, with two wins and a draw in nine outings, but will travel to Invicta Mustangs with plenty of confidence this weekend.

Alley added: “The only team who have any air of invincibility about them right now is Peterborough. For the rest of the teams it’s about who makes the least mistakes.

“In our case we’ve made too many errors at crucial points in our games, which is why we’ve found ourselves where we are”