Whitley Warriors took on the Sheffield Spartans on Sunday evening at Hillheads in a NIHL North Division 1 encounter. Warriors were still without several of their experienced d men however player/coach Simon Leach and Josh Maddock were both back on the Whitley roster, having missed their side’s previous match up.
Richie Lawson started the game in goal with Warriors using 3 sets of defencemen and 3 lines of forwards throughout the contest. Connor Shanks and Joe Hall, who made their senior debuts against Sutton on Saturday afternoon, were both also on the Whitley roster once again.
Warriors just couldn’t get into the game during the 1st period and after 20 minutes of action Whitley were 4-0 down, Ollie Barron grabbing 2 of the visitors goals while Stuart Brittle and Nick Manning also found the back of the net. The 2nd session of play started also started badly from a Whitley point of view as Spartans skipper Ollie Barron completed his hat trick to made it 5-0 just 55 seconds into the middle stanza.
Whitley managed to grab their first goal of the game under a minute later though when Adam Reynolds scrambled the puck home. Warriors upped their intensity which caused the Sheffield defence a number of problems and it came as no surprise when Callum Queenan grabbed a further goal for the home side just after the half hour mark when he lit the lamp after being set up nicely by linemate Reynolds.
Warriors continued to create openings and a deflected Kyle Ross effort almost caught Sheffield’s in form netminder Brandon Stones out however the highly thought of goaltender was able just able to stop the puck crossing the goal line. Towards the end of the 2nd period Spartans abrasive power forward Nick Whyatt almost came to blows with both Alex Lawson and Simon Leach however the officials were able to calm the situation down and prevent the gloves from being dropped.
The Tynesiders were dealt a huge blow in the 3rd period when Warriors player/coach Simon Leach had to leave the contest due to a knee injury. The vastly experienced d man looked in a great deal of pain as he was helped from the ice and it is hoped that the injury is not as serious as it first appeared.
Warriors were unable to find a way back into the game in the final session of play and late in proceedings Sheffield defenceman Jonathan Kirk picked up his side’s 6th goal of the evening when his long rang effort was misjudged by Whitley netminder Richie Lawson which saw the game end 6-2 in Spartans favour.
Whitley winger Callum Queenan who was called up by GB under 18’s last week was chosen as Warriors man of the match for his energetic display while the visitors netminder Brandon Stones was chosen as the top Sheffield player during the contest.
Whitley Coach Dave Holland shared his views on the game.
“A devastating result, we need to apologise to the fans especially for the way we performed in the 1st period. We turned it on in the 2nd period at times but were mediocre in the 3rd period.
“Simon, who is now 40 years old, was giving it everything he had tonight and unfortunately he’s got injured, we aren’t sure how bad the injury is as yet and I just hope he is ok.
“We have the potential in our team to do well as we have some great players in our squad, everyone has just got to buy into what we are trying to do. A handful of the guys on the team can’t do everything and the rest of the squad have to realise that.
“We are hoping that some of our injured players can be back for next week. [Scott] Cooper could well be back from his shoulder injury and we are waiting to hear on Dan Pye and Dan Harris who are both out with concussion at the moment. I don’t think Paul Matthews will be back for next week but it would be great to get some of our proper d men back on the ice as that would enable us to get our forwards back up front.”
Whitley will be looking to get back to winning ways next weekend when the Manchester Minotaurs visit the north east for a NIHL North Division 1 match. The game will get under way at Warriors’ customary 5.00pm face off time at Hillheads ice rink in Whitley Bay.