CHELMSFORD Chieftains had a weekend to forget as they were beaten by a determined Streatham Redskins in South London on Saturday.

And just to prove it wasn't a fluke result they repeated the feat on Sunday on Chieftains home ice.

On Saturday the Chieftains travelled to South London to take on the Redskins, a team that they will get to know quite well over the next month.

The teams will meet no less than five times in the next five weeks in both league and a cup semi-final. Chieftains were without in-form forward Darren Brown for the entire weekend and Euan King was the chosen netminder for Saturday's game.

Streatham took the game to the Chieftains in what was to prove a incident packed physical encounter between the sides. Ex-Chieftain Jakub Klima opened the scoring putting the home team ahead at 10.44 and Redskins captain Joe Johnston doubled their advantage at 22:02.

Chieftains came close on a couple of occasions before the physical side of the game took over and both sides took roughing penalties in close succession.

Firstly Jack Tarczycki and Chieftains defenceman Ryan Giles had a major falling out. This was followed closely by the experienced Steven Fisher and young chieftain Sean Barry trading blows, their reward two minutes each for roughing plus an extra two minutes for Fisher for interference.

So Chieftains had a two-minute powerplay which was duly converted by Matt Turner at 51:49, with assists from Ross Brears and Danny Hammond.

Chieftains now looked to tie the game to take at least a point. But with five minutes of the game remaining, Chieftains once again fell foul of the rules of the game. Cameron Barlett was ejected for hooking and misconduct ending his evening prematurely.

Chieftains pulled King with just a minute to go leaving the net empty in favour of an extra skater to try and get a late equaliser, but the Redskins held firm and Chieftains were left empty-handed.

The only positive thing on the night is Invicta Dynamos also dropped points in a surprise 6-2 home loss to MK Thunder, meaning Chieftains still topped the table on Saturday night.

And the weekend didn't improve on Sunday as Streatham once again took the spoils of victory and the points, inflicting Chieftains' first home league defeat of the season. Again without Brown and Clements took over between the pipes.

Chieftains took the game to the visitors and only an outstanding display of shot stopping from Will Sanderson in the Redskins net stopped them from taking a first period lead.

But early in the second the Redskins broke the deadlock Sean Scarborough the scorer. And just ten seconds later even before the goal was announced, Clements was again removing the puck from the back of the net.

The Chieftains looked shellshocked and took a little time to regroup. They were helped when the Redskins began to lose their discipline and a series of penalties from both the Redskins players and bench gave them a powerplay chance.

This they took and at 30:30 Martin Piecha's pass across goal found Turner at the back post. He smashed the puck past Sanderson putting an end to his shut-out for the night.

A minute later and Chieftains were level, this time Piecha became the finisher rather than the provider at 31:37, Brears with the assist.

But as soon as the sides were even handed again the Redskins took the lead again with only 21 seconds of the period remaining. Scarborough with his second of the night. But a bad end to the second period was made a disasterous end to the period when with just a second remaining before the break Tarczycki scored to make the Chieftains task even more difficult.

Both sides returned to the dressing room with the Redskins taunting the Chieftains and players had to be ushered into their respective changing rooms. It was clear to all that the final 20 minutes was going to be a bad tempered affair.

At 42:48 Chieftains were back within one Piecha once again on target, Brears once again the provider.

But The Redskins continued to press and two goals at 45:13 and 48:41 signalled that the game was all but over as the Chieftains' heads dropped.

In the final ten minutes tempers boiled over with Chieftains Bartlett, Julian Smith and Michael Ranby all dropping gloves and going toe-to-toe with opposing players. But in this game it's goals that count not penalty points as the game ended as a 6-3 loss.

The weekend was made worst when Invicta beat Solent putting Chieftains back into second place in the league. They are level on points with games in hand but a tough weekend beckons. Away at Bracknell on Saturday followed by the top of the table clash at Invicta on Sunday.

On a brighter note the Warriors in Division 2 South grabbed a 3-3 draw in Swindon on Sunday which puts them through to the Cup Final weekend in Oxford (Date still TBC).

And with the Chieftains away it’s the turn of the Warriors to take centre stage at Riverside with two home games starting on Saturday with the visit of Slough Jets (5.45pm face-off) followed on Sunday by Lee Valley Lions (6.30pm face-off).