But they were unable to follow it up with a win at Bracknell Bees on Sunday when they were on the wrong end of a 7-1 scoreline.

Saturday's win saw the EPL's top scorer Gary Clarke in fine form as he hit four of the goals, opening the team's tally after 4mins 4secs when Adam Carr set him up for a shot high in to the top right hand corner.

Lightning were in charge for most of the first period but they had to wait until 18mins 26secs for the next goal when Carr was allowed two cracks at goal after goalie Andy Moffat failed to hold his first effort.

The hosts were given an early powerplay chance in the second period when Moffat was called for tripping – Tom Long sitting the penalty for him. That gave Nick Poole the chance to supply Clarke to fire into the top of the net at 22mins 12secs.

Just as Lightning were threatening to end the contest before the second break Chelmsford staged a mini revival thanks to two Ratislav Palov strikes. Mark Stewart and he went on a double pronged attack in the 24th minute with Stewart drawing goalie Barry Hollyhead before Palov found the gap to score.

Palov then dummied Hollyhead to make it 3-2 following Scott McKenzie's long up ice pass at 26mins 5secs.

The hosts gave themselves breathing space when Moffat made a great stop from Toni Alasaarela but was unable to repeat the feat as Clarke completed his hat-trick at 35mins 29secs to make it 4-2 by the second interval.

Chelmsford rarely looked like scoring in the early part of the third session but it took Lightning until 50mins 30secs before they could breach the visitors' defence again while Andy Hannah was sitting out a slashing call.

Once more Clarke was the scorer as he converted an Ales Parez pass from the left.

Chris McEwen then supplied Matt Towalski to make it 6-2 on 51mins 22secs before only Moffat denied Mikko Skinnari a few seconds later.

A holding penalty on Palov gave Lightning to the chance to extend the lead when Alasaarela set up Parez who managed to loop the puck round Moffat at 56mins 43secs.

Further penalties on Chelmsford's Simon Howard and Mike Marostega resulted in the hosts' eighth goal with a blue line powerblast from Greg Randall being deflected past Moffat by Kurt Irvine at 59mins 53secs.

The following day at Bracknell the city side fell two goals behind by the first break when Tom Carlon assisted Shaun Thompson for the first Bees goal on 16mins 54secs.

Lightning were then made to pay heavily for a holding an opponent's stick call on Greg Randall as Joe Baird set up Jan Melichar 32 seconds from the interval.

Any hope Lightning had of a second session comeback to all intents and purposes disappeared when Matt Foord got Bees' third goal on 28mins 38secs.

Then came a bust up between Kurt Irvine and Bradley Watchorn after a checking to the head offence by the Bracknell player. Irvine was given a total of six minutes for charging and roughing while the Bees player was given a total of 18 minutes in the sin bin.

The incident sparked a further clash which resulted in Bees' Adam Bicknell and Lightning's Daniel Croft being ejected from the game for roughing.

None of this able to spark Lightning into any kind of fightback and instead Michal Kanka netted a straight hat-trick – twice firing past Hollyhead at 34mins 27secs and 36mins 35secs to give Bees a 5-0 lead at the second break.

Kanka then carried on where he left off with Bees' sixth goal on 42mins 49secs as Lightning were left with no hope at all of a comeback.

Lightning did eventually get on the scoresheet after Sam Oakford was given two minutes for cross-checking – Skinnari setting up Alasaarela to score. But it was too little too late and Ryan Watt rounded off for Bees at 56mins 49secs to make it 7-1.