Bobby Haig was the hero as Hawks closed in on the English National Ice Hockey League title.

Player-coach Haig grabbed an incredible five goals in the 9-4 victory over local rivals Flintshire Freeze on Sunday as Hawks flew to the top of the league.

Their latest triumph, following a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Spartans 24 hours earlier, puts Hawks firmly in the driving seat for top spot.

With just three league games to go the men in charge are confident.

"We had a good weekend and leaped into first place in the league," said manager Peter Sheffield. "It is up to us now. We don't need to rely on other team losing, just concentrate on ourselves winning.

"If we do win our remaining games, we will be champions."

"We are confident," insisted assistant manager Graham Lomax.

"It is in our own hands and we are capable of going all the way. The next two league games are must wins.

"Billingham are on level points with us, but we have a game in hand against third place Nottingham, so that game is essential.

"The weekend didn't go quite as well as it could have, as we only picked up one point against Sheffield.

"However, combined with the points from the Flintshire game, was enough to put us top. Sheffield isn't an easy place to go, but we showed a lot of character to bring it level after going 3-0 down so early.

"Flintshire was slightly more tricky than we anticipated, although we still controlled the play and never looked like losing."

Hawks recorded their first draw of the season at Sheffield where the home team took them by surprise and raced into a three-goal lead inside the opening 10 minutes.

Hawks, grabbing a goal in each period, levelled the score, Haig netting in the first period, Anthony Kinder in the second and Bob Chalmers in the third.

Hawks took maximum points from their game with Flintshire, man of the match Haig helping himself to a share of the goals.

Haig grabbed both of Hawks first period goals, while Flintshire hit just one in reply. Two strikes from Scott Barnett, a third from Haig and one through Ricci Hulme managed to keep Flintshire at bay, despite three goals from the visitors in the second period.

Hawks sealed the win in the third period, Chris Gracie and Haig (2) proved too much for Flintshire.