Lancashire Hawks 5 Fife Flyers 8 ; Murrayfield Royals 6 Lancashire Hawks 6

LANCASHIRE Hawks stopped the rot last night - and Adrian Lomonaco was the toast.

Only a late late goal denied Hawks a much-needed win but Lomonaco - the top points scorer in the land - still celebrated another hat trick.

Hawks were within 69 seconds of victory in Scotland when Neil Scott decided to be a party pooper.

The Lancashire lads remain without a win in nine attempts, but they wentso close last night.

When Canadian superstar Lomonaco gave them a 5-6 lead on 56 minutes it seemed fair to assume that a win was on the cards. But Scott, himself a hat-trick man, saw to it that Hawks were frustrated yet again.

It was nip and tuck throughout, Hawks pinching period one, being hammered in the second before clawing back in the final countdown.

Period scores: 1-2, 4-1, 1-3.

Scoresheet: Mike Pynnonen 1+0, Jim Pennycook 1+0, Jeff Daniels 1+2, Tim Dempsey 0+2, Alan Hough 0+3, Adrian Lomonaco 3+1. On Saturday Hawks shot themselves in the foot.

After leading 4-3 at the end of period one they again failed to produce the required level of consistency to allow Fife back into the picture.

Three goals in the opening quarter of an hour and only a couple from the visitors in reply had Hawks fans anticipating a long-awaited Arena success.

But Fife bossed the second period and old campaigner Frank Morris eventually had the final say with the last two goals of the game.

Hawks managed to keep old foe John Haig off the scoresheet, but the former skipper did chip in with a hat-trick of assists to more than play his part.

Period scores: 4-3, 0-2, 1-3.

Scoresheet: Adrian Lomonaco 1+0, Alan Hough 1+1, Mika Pynnonen 0+1, Jim Pennycook 0+3, Jeff Daniels 0+2, Simon Mills 2+1, Lee Cowmeadow 1+1.

Hawks' position in the Northern League remains precarious, but player-coach Jim Pennycook can take comfort from two spirited performances.

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