OXFORD City Stars had a rollercoaster weekend which saw them climb the table before being outclassed by the league leaders.

A 6-1 success at Bracknell Hornets moved Simon Anderson’s squad up to second in the English National League South Division 1.

It set up a summit clash against Chelmsford Chieftains at Oxpens, where the visitors ran out 10-5 winners to stretch their lead.

Stars went into the game knowing a second victory in 24 hours would have taken them top of the pile.

And they made the perfect start, Dominic Hopkins opening the scoring with a powerplay goal inside four minutes.

The advantage lasted less than three minutes, when Juraj Huska levelled while Stars’ Hallam Wilson served a penalty for hooking.

The game was in the balance until Chelmsford struck either side of the first interval, as Jake Sylvester and Anthony Leone beat netminder Tom Annetts.

Hopkins’s second goal of the night quickly reduced the arrears to 3-2.

But from then on Chieftains’ finishing proved the difference.

Daniel Hammond and Lukas Zatopek struck within 30 seconds, prompting Stars to swap Mark Duffy for Annetts.

But the new netminder was quickly beaten by Hammond and Cameron Bartlett to put the visitors 7-2 up.

Wilson notched right at the end of the second period, while Joe Edwards and Josh Florey found the net in the final frame, but Chelmsford were always just out of sight.

Huska scored twice more to complete his hat-trick, sandwiching an effort from Darren Brown.

Hopkins was the star in the trip to Bracknell, hitting a hat-trick in the win at the division’s bottom side.

After a tense start, the deadlock was broken by Stars’ import Ondrej Pekarik.

Danny Hughes soon got Hornets level before the end of the first period, but that was as good as it got for the hosts.

Hopkins was credited with Stars’ second goal, before Joe Edwards made it 3-1 on the half-hour mark.

A comfortable victory was secured in the third period.

OXFORD City Stars have launched two apps aimed at making the club more accessible for supporters.

The first application will keep fans up-to-date with Stars’ fixtures, the latest statistics on individual players and allow access to wallpaper images for their phone.

There is also ‘Stars Swaps’, a Top Trumps-style game containing every member of the Stars squad and legends from the past.

James Schall, Stars director said: “We hope that as many fans as possible download the app and enjoy the hardwork from our friends over at Twenty3Design and enjoy even more ways of connecting to Oxford City Stars.”

The free downloads for iPhones are available from this morning by visiting oxfordcitystars.com/apps.

Ben Ealey-Newman, who left Stars for Berkshire last month, clashed with Jason Ikin and sat out the rest of the game.

With a man advantage, Darren Elliott extended the lead to 4-1.

Another flashpoint saw Stars’ Mike Whillock sent to the sin bin, but Hopkins added gloss to the scoreline with a brace in the final two minutes.

LATEST TABLE

P W D L F A Pts

Chelmsford 6 5 1 0 34 17 11

Oxford City Stars 6 3 1 2 34 29 7

Invicta Dynamos 5 3 0 2 22 12 6

MK Thunder 4 1 2 1 13 12 4

Wightlink Raiders 3 2 0 1 9 9 4

London Raiders 2 1 1 0 10 8 3

Streatham 3 1 1 1 10 12 3

Solent Devils 5 1 0 4 11 15 2

Bracknell Hornets 8 1 0 7 12 41 2