Romford Buccaneers head coach Jason Buckman took heart from his side's display in defeat at Division One South rivals Streatham.

Having twice led in the first period, as Luca Pascale and Megas Kanys struck either side of a JJ Pitchley effort, Buccs found themselves 5-2 down early in the middle session.

But Brynley Capps and Pascale replied before the midway mark to give them hope, with Capps levelling in the 46th minute.

Streatham regained the lead with seven minutes left, though, and Harvey Briggs sealed their 7-5 win with 37 seconds on the clock.

But Buckman said: "It was another performance that shows we can compete against the bigger teams.

"We were missing a few main guys (Courtney Grant, Sam Austin and Sam Robinson) so to go into Streatham and put in that performance was impressive.

"Half of the middle period we struggled to find some momentum and found ourselves three goals down, I called a timeout and that really settled them down and we managed to find our way back into the game to get it back to 5-5.

"Maybe just that bit of extra quality from Streatham was enough to see them get the win, but I think we showed more than enough, and we can match anybody in the league on the night."

Buccaneers head to Oxford City Stars on Sunday (6.15pm), then host a return meeting at Romford's Sapphire Ice & Leisure Centre the following weekend.

They round off 2023 with successive matches against Essex rivals Chelmsford, with Buckman adding: "Some crucial matches coming up, back-to-back against Oxford which will be four-pointer games and also back-to-back Essex derbies before Christmas."