It has been a difficult start to the season for Lucas Smital’s side, falling to defeat in all four games in the English Premier Ice Hockey League this season.

Chelmsford - from the National Ice Hockey League - gave as good as they got in a pulsating encounter in the Challenge Cup on Sunday, but a Lewis Turner effort two minutes before the end on the powerplay was enough for Bracknell to edge it in front of an expectant home crowd at the Hive.

It wasn’t pretty at times for the hosts, but Beeching believes that getting the first win of the season was more important than the performance on the night.

“It gets the monkey off our back which is important four games in,” he said. “Chelmsford are a good side despite being in the league below so it’s good to get the win.

“They won the quadruple in their own league last year so obviously they’re a good team and we were playing with two imports less this year because of the rules of the competition, which saw Lucas [Smital] and Jan [Bendik] miss out.

“I thought it was two evenly matched teams so it’s great to come out on top.” Bracknell found the net five times on the night, with Pavel Strycek, Scott Spearing, Ryan Watt and Matt Foord scoring for Bees, before Turner’s late winner.

And Beeching believes that the side have been threatening to hit the net for a while, adding that they must now take that form into this weekend’s double header in the league.

“I felt last weekend we were creating chances,” he said. “We just weren’t finishing them.

“But this time we did the same and managed to find the net so it’s pleasing and hopefully it will help us next week.” He also stressed: “I feel we’ve been competetive in the four games we’ve played so far.

“The Telford game got away from us a bit scoreline wise but even that was only 3-1 until very late on so I think it’s starting to come together now which is encouraging.

“Next weekend brings up its own challenges with Sheffield and Telford but the win will give the boys a good boost and hopefully we can take that on.”