Double delight for Billingham Stars as they tighten grip on second spot

Billingham Stars took control of second place in National League (North) Moralee Division One by beating Manchester Minotaurs and Solway Sharks for a huge four-point weekend.

Against the bottom side in Altrincham they cruised to an 8-0 victory, then triumphed 6-3 at home to their visitors from Scotland.

Early pressure paid off against the Minotaurs when Michael Elder scored on a delayed penalty call in the fourth minute and Luke Brown doubled the lead in the 12th minute when he forced the puck home.

Three minutes later Elder fired into the top right-hand corner of the net and fit-again Thomas Stuart-Dant put one past the outstretched pad of the netminder just as the buzzer sounded to effectively end the game as a contest with only 20 minutes played.

The Stars started the second period slowly but got back in the groove in the 26th minute when Stuart-Dant squeezed his first-time effort just inside the post.

A few minutes later Chris Sykes scored straight from a face off to make it 6-0 with more than half the game still to play.

With such a comfortable cushion the Stars took their foot off the gas, and man-of-the-match Elder’s hat-trick goal in the 36th minute was the only other marker before the second interval.

Billingham were soon back on the front foot in the final period, but it took them until the 52nd minute to close out the scoring, Callum Davies placing the puck nicely into the bottom right-hand corner

The following evening at the Forum they fell behind to the third-placed Sharks early on after Alan Crane tipped a Pavol Melichercik blue line slapshot high into man-of-the-match Mark Watson’s net in the third minute.

But Billingham responded almost immediately, with Sykes slotting home the equaliser.

Both sides created chances in an open game but neither found the back of the net again until the following session.

Billingham finally got their noses in front in the 23rd minute when Matthew Campbell saw his blue line effort float past netminder Gary Russell and less than a minute before the interval Sykes put a pinpoint Stuart-Dant pass into the roof of the net.

Bowman gave the home side some breathing space with a backhand effort in the 43rd minute, but the visitors pulled the game back to 4-2 with a Melichercik power play goal in the 48th minute.

Stuart-Dant restored the three-goal cushion in the 54th minute before terrible defending let the Sharks’ Stevie Moore in seconds later to make it 5-3.

In a last-ditch attempt to get something out of the game Solway pulled netminder Russell for the final 47 seconds of the match, but the move backfired as Elder put the puck into the empty net with just three seconds remaining.

Stars’ director of coaching Terry Ward said: “The guys all responded to that and gave everything against Solwayin a tough game.

“It was a bit too open for my liking, end-to-end stuff and great for the crowd to watch.

“I thought Mark Watson was absolutely fantastic.

“He deserves a mention because he’s not had a great deal of ice time, it’s nice to see him get in there and show his talents off - an outstanding performance.”