New year was not great for the Chieftains as they went down 8-5 to Romford Raiders in the South East trophy in what was effectively a dead rubber match as Romford had already won the trophy.

However it was an incident packed game in which neither side backed down and it was only thanks to some great saves and good fortune shining on both netminders that the scoreline was kept at what it was. The Chieftains took the early lead through Danny Hammond and things were looking promising for the Chelmsford side. 5 minutes later and the gloves came off as youngster Cameron Bartlett showed immense courage to fight Romford hardman Andrius Kaminskas in what turned out to be a one-sided fight with Kaminskas taking Bartlett apart. Credit must go to young Cameron though as many senior players would think twice about dropping them with 'Bomber' so for a lad like him to do so willingly took some going. Shortly after Raiders captain Anthony Leone got the first of his pair of goals, while Juraj Huska and Matt Turner also netted before the end of the first to give the home side a 3-1 lead. The second period was also a 3-1 affair but the Chieftains were the winners of this period running in goals from James Ayling and a pair from Jakub Klima. There was also time in this period for another bout of fisticuffs as Danny Cox of the Chieftains dropped the gloves with JJ McGrath for a decent scrap with Cox just taking the spoils. Again though the Chieftains were unable to capitalise on the momentum shift and the period ended 4-4.

Into the third and Romford ran away with it and ran in 4 goals to the Chieftains 1 with 3 ex-Chieftains scoring in the form of Jason Buckman, Tyrone Miller and man of the match Matt Turner. Grant Taylor got Romford's other goal while Gary Clarke got the lone consolation goal.

Away from the ice and the Chieftains were given a massive boost over new year as Oxford City Stars made the shock announcement they were withdrawing from the league with immediate effect, thus meaning the Chieftains became only 2 points behind Romford on equal games rather than 1 point and 1 game behind. This means if the Chieftains win all their remaining games, including both games against Romford, then they would become league champions.