Blackburn Hawks 4 Sunderland Chiefs 5; Altrincham Aces 10 Blackburn Hawks 5

BLACKBURN ice hockey fans woke up in despondent mood this morning after Hawks were dealt two defeats in a miserable weekend.

Firstly Sunderland left the Arena with the points on Saturday despite a brave last period fightback from Bobby Haig's side in the last period of this Border League encounter.

At 5-2 down Hawks pulled two back through Haig and Dan Mackriel, but could not find another goal to salvage a point.

Hawks assistant boss Mark Ward was disappointed, but highlighted the continuing problem in his side's play.

"It takes more than 20 minutes to win a match," said Ward. "We came good in the third, but the first two periods we let ourselves down.

"But we proved that we can turn it on when the effort is there, it is just a shame that we seem to need a three goal deficit to motivate us."

Sunday saw Hawks travel to Altrincham in the English League Division One (North), but once again leave the ice with no reward.

The sides were level going into the last period, but after conceding a further five goals in the final 20 minutes, Haig found it difficult not to criticise the official.

"We played well in the first two periods," said Haig. "But we tired in the third. To be honest there were one or two decisions tonight that could and should have gone our way, they could have made the difference. "I don't want to blame the referee because he also made some excellent calls, but there were too many unjustified penalties from our point of view and it has cost us."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.