Peterborough Phantoms 20 Blackburn Hawks 1: Antti Raikkonen helped his side extinguish Blackburn's English Premier Cup chances with six goals as Hawks suffered their biggest defeat of the season.

Raikkonen, who has 19 goals in the Premier League so far this season, boosted Peterborough's cup aspirations and ensured Hawks were swept out of the competition.

Despite being on the receiving end of a thumping, Hawks assistant manager Graham Lomax remained upbeat.

He said: "We were thrashed, but it's exactly what we expected.

"There is a vast gulf between Peterborough and us. We put out some of our youngsters and three of our under 19's and left out some of our first teamers.

"I was impressed with them, they gave it their best and they loved it.

"Peterborough were very impressive. They play a very organised game and we never really stood a chance. The older players accept that games like this are likely to end in disappointment, but everyone kept going until the final whistle which was nice to see."

Peterborough began the raid right from the off and by the end of the first period led Hawks 6-0.

Despite Michael Brunton pulling one back for Hawks at the beginning of the second period, the Phantoms did not let up and banged a further eight shots past Matty Compton in the Hawks goal to lead 14-1.

Matters did not get better for Hawks in the third period and a further six goals from the home side sealed an impressive win in which the Phantoms had a massive 75 shots on goal.

Hawks face Peterborough again next weekend in their last game of the Premier Cup and the coach is looking forward to seeing the back of the competition for the time being.

"The sooner the competition is over for us the sooner we can concentrate on the league.

"We have to get the game on Saturday against Peterborough at the Arena out of the way and then we are back to the league for our away game against Flintshire on Sunday."