Slough Jets 7 Lancashire Hawks 4 ; Lancashire Hawks 3 Kingston Hawks 8

LANCASHIRE Hawks' loyal fans continue on a starvation diet, living in hopes of jam tomorrow with their team smarting from a dismal run of seven successive empty plates.

A bumper Arena crowd, numbering around 1,400, watched Hawks slump against Kingston Hawks last night for the fifth time this season.

The fan's patience is admirable, but Hawks need to find a remedy to prevent their ice hockey season tailing off completely.

Only once in a game of any significance have Hawks triumphed at home, many of their better performances reserved for trips afar.

On Saturday they gave a spirited display in losing at Slough, even leading at one stage against a squad containing nine overseas stars.

"It's puzzling to say the least," says manager Mike Cockayne. "We are doing quite well against quality opponents away from home, but we can't get it together at the Arena."

Hawks are now struggling near the foot of both the National League and the Northern Conference. It must be said that their small squad has been hit by injuries - there was no Neil Abel last night and neither Craig Sharman or Alan Hough were able to compete.

Kingston's strength in depth - and their extra quality in all areas - proved decisive.

Ashley Tait, a Great Britain international, grabbed a hat trick for Kingston who made the game safe within the first period despite Jim Pennycook getting Hawks back at 1-1 after four minutes.

Losing Bobby Haig on a game penalty for abusing an official didn't help matters.

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

Scoresheet: Jim Pennycook 1+1, Simon Mills 1+0, Billy Price 1+0, Lee Cowmeadow 0+1.

At Slough Hawks went three down only to produce a rousing fightback.

The Jets roared into a 3-0 lead, but Adrian Lomonaco (hat-trick) inspired Hawks to pull back and then go ahead at 3-4 after 32 minutes.

Assisted by a couple of dubious refereeing decisions, the home side managed to pull things around by taking the final period by three goals.

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

Scoresheet: Alan Hough 1+2, Adrian Lomonaco 3+1, Jeff Daniels 0+3, Tom Burridge 0+1, Lee Cowmeadow 0+1.

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