OXFORD City Stars turned in a plucky performance against champions-elect Chelmsford Chieftains, but eventually went down 4-3.

The Oxford outfit were bidding for a league double against the English National League South Division 1 leaders, in front of a bumper crowd at Oxpens of more than 450.

Stars were without the injured Tom Avery and Josh Oliver, but were otherwise at full strength.

They began the first period brightly with Chieftains netminder Euan King called into early action.

The deadlock was broken in the 17th minute when the visitors’ player-of-the-match Danny Hammond fired home after assists by Ross Brears and the recently-signed Olegs Lascenko.

The second period started in the best way possible for the Stars when Ondrej Pekarik latched on to a sublime Joe Oliver pass after only 27 seconds, and beat King to tie the scores at 1-1, Shane Moore getting the second assist.

The visitors’ reply was swift as Hammond notched his second in a similar manner to his first goal with Brears again getting the assist.

The impressive Matt Turner extended the Chieftains’ lead 90 seconds later with Hammond this time the provider.

Stars again dug deep into their reserves and Pekarik notched his second goal after good work from Josh Florey.

The period was then played out with both teams probing hard again, and creating good chances.

Stars’ best chance fell to Mike Whillock whose shot from distance grazed the outside of the post, with netminder King beaten.

Stars started the third period much as they had begun the second by finding the goal almost immediately.

This time it was Ben Ealey-Newman who scored after determined work by Alan Green and Boris Ruzicka.

Stars’ Pekarik then took a two-minute penalty for tripping and while he was in the penalty box, Turner was able to latch on to a Juraj Huska pass, in front of the Stars goal, to score what turned out to be the winning goal.

Nevertheless, it was an encouraging performance by Oxford City Stars, and showed just how far the team has progressed this season.