THE CHELMSFORD Chieftains need just one point from their final two league games to be assured of the league title after back-to-back wins last weekend.
On Saturday, they came up against a hard-working Cardiff team, and a goalless first period left fans nervous that the visitors might sneak a win and spoil the league title challenge.
Julius Sinkovic and Danny Hammond calmed their nerves in the second period by scoring one each.
Steve Osman pulled a goal back for the Welsh side, but two late goals from Gary Clarke and Darren Brown made sure of the two points.
So the Chieftains travelled to Rom Valley Way on Sunday still on course for their first league title since the 2008-09 season.
Everyone was expecting a close and hard-fought game against Romford Raiders, but early on the Chieftains ripped their defence apart with some excellent pinpoint passing.
Within four minutes it was 2-0, with goals from Michael Ranby and Sinkovic.
Shaun Yardley then took advantage of a defensive mix-up in front of Ryan Bainborough's net and brought the home side to within one goal.
Seconds later, Sinkovic was on target again after Clarke and Ranby combined to get the Slovak star through to score.
It became 4-1 when Darren Brown fired home after some lovely play from Danny Hammond down the wing.
Tensions between Andrius Kaminskas and Ranby began to boil over, but Ranby was not going to be drawn in.
Early on in the second period, a Hammond strike made it 5-1 after a great pass from Tibor Schneider, and then Ranby scored to put the visitors 6-1 ahead, which led to Romford's Danny Marshall calling a time-out.
As many expected, just over a minute after the time-out, Bainborough was run by the Raiders and JJ McGrath was trying to bait any Chieftains player into a scrap, but no-one took the bait.
Man of the match James Ayling then scored at the back post, and it was all Chelmsford for a while, with the Raiders conceding penalty after penalty.
Romford then got a powerplay advantage after some scuffles around Bainborough's net, but within eight seconds of the start of the powerplay, two Romford players were sent to join two other team-mates in the box.
Early on in the third, during another powerplay opportunity, Chieftains scored their eighth goal with a Schneider rocket.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the gloves did come off, but there were no major incidents or injuries.
Chieftains are now three points clear at the top of the league with two games to play.
Their next game is away to bottom-of-the-league Solent and Gosport Devils, so it is possible that the title can be wrapped up on Saturday night.
