WIDNES Wild women’s team staged a sensational fight-back to take a point off current Women’s Premier league leaders Chelmsford Cobras in a 4-4 draw in their final home game of the season at Silver Blades Widnes on Sunday.

The Cobras arrived with an unbeaten record and had only dropped points to Milton Keynes Falcons and Nottingham Vipers all season who whom they drawn 3-3. They were missing the league’s top scorer so far this season - Team GB international Bethany Hill – but still had impressive firepower in the form of Russian player Tereza Plankova.

The Wild women had only very narrowly lost the away fixture in Chelmsford 7-6 back in September, despite having led 1-3 early in the first period and were keen to continue the progress they had shown in recent games.

The opening to this game was incredibly close with both teams testing each other’s strengths and weaknesses but with neither side able to make much of an impression. The first goal came after 8 minutes when Widnes got caught out in defence and the puck dropped to an unmarked Cobras player on the right post who was able to guide it into the net.

The lead didn’t last long – however – as, a little over 3 minutes later, the Wild women were back on level terms. They had a powerplay opportunity after Chelmsford’s Plankova was sent to the box for a cross checking penalty and Lucy Kirkham fired in a long shot through a scrum of defenders to beat the netminder.

Widnes pushed forward trying to build on this breakthrough but were unable to make their offensive pressure count. They were eventually undone by a breakout from the Cobras’ defence that saw an unmarked Plankova power through the Wild defence and fire past the netminder to put the visitors back in front.

There were more chances for both teams in the closing minutes of the period but both netminders played especially well to keep the scores at 1-2 at the first break.

The second period started off being contested as fiercely as the first had finished and Widnes began to find their game.

Chelmsford edged further ahead with a goal after 28 minutes although this was rather controversial as Wild netminder Rachel Fairbairn, having already made a great save from point blank range, appeared to have her glove over the puck when it was poked into the net by the Cobras’ attacker. Despite the subsequent protestations, the referee allowed the goal to stand and the Cobras went into the second half of the game 1-3 in front.

Widnes dug deep at this point and showed a lot of character to overcome this setback and pull themselves back into the game.

The breakthrough came on 35 minutes when a Chelmsford attack broke down and Wild’s Kirkham stole the puck off a Cobras’ player, skated the whole length of the ice and fired in a superb unassisted goal to halve the deficit.

Hopes were high in the third period but the Wild suffered an early setback as Cobra’s Plankova skated through the whole Widnes defence to score her hattrick goal – and the visitors’ 4th – less than two minutes into the period.

Once again, the Wild women regrouped and set out to pull themselves back into the game. On 48 minutes, they did just that when a rasping blueline slapshot by Sophie Sinclair Reeks - recently returned from international duty with the Team GB women’s under 18 team – flew into the back of the net and gave Widnes hope of a late fight back.

The next 10 minutes were incredibly tense as both teams tried to force their way through and create an opening.

Then with just under 90 seconds remaining, the chance came for Widnes. Beckie Elliott carried the puck out of the Wild defensive zone and, with a precision slide-rule pass, found Wilds’ Belgian international and season top scorer Leen de Decker homing in on goal. She calmly fired the puck past the despairing netminder to tie the scores at 4-4.

A frantic last minute or so saw the Wild goal come under intense pressure as the league leaders tried to snatch a late winner but the Widnes defence held firm and the Wild women picked up a very creditable draw against a very good Chelmsford side.

After the game, Coach Owen Tennant said: “I couldn't be happier with the performance from the girls. We got off to a bit of a slow start but that was always going to be a problem when playing Chelmsford for any team, but our determination allowed us to pull it back.”

“The girls listened to the advice from both me and assistant coach Matt Humphreys on the bench and put in to play what we have been working on in training. This showed through the growing intensity as the game progressed.”

For the girls, only positives should be taken from this and they should be very proud of their performance.”

This was the Widnes Wild women’s team’s last home game of the Women’s Premier League season, although they have three away games still to play. Their next game is away to Slough on 30th April, they then travel to Milton Keynes on 7th May and round off the campaign with a trip to Hull to play Kingston Diamonds on 27th May.

If the Wild women are able to manage a 4th place finish in the WPL table, they will qualify for the EIHA Womens’ Champions tournament weekend in Sheffield at the beginning of June, which features the play off competitions for the top teams in all 4 women’s divisions.