Solway Sharks 5, Paisley Pirates 6

PAISLEY Pirates squeezed past Solway Sharks in an 11-goal thriller at the weekend, recording only their second away win of the league campaign.

The match would prove a tight affair and Sharks got their noses in front just after the five minute mark as Henderson put his team ahead.

But the visitors were level just over a minute later as Tom Johnston was on hand to fire past Hepburn to tie the scores.

Their joy was short lived, however, as the home side regained the lead within two minutes as Henderson netted his second goal of the night.

It wasn’t until the 14th minute that Pirates achieved parity, this time thanks to Mark Hassan’s leveller on the powerplay, to send the teams in at the first break all square at 2-2.

Pirates came out of the blocks firing and were ahead within a minute of the restart as Orr gave them a lead which they never lost thereafter, and with Johnston netting his second, and Pirates’ fourth, less than four minutes later.

All looked good for the visitors, but they received an unwelcome setback within a minute as Thorp was ejected from the game, picking up a 5+game call for kneeing. The visitors looked to have played off the extended penalty without damage to the scoreboard, but with only seconds of it remaining Houston netted to put the home side back in the game at 4-3.

Pirates did recover, however, and with Campbell netting with just over three minutes remaining in the session, they headed for the final 20 minutes with a useful two goal advantage at 5-3.

Pirates came out looking for a quick goal to get some daylight between them and the Sharks. Despite having a number of powerplays early in the session, it was not until Pirates were left shorthanded for the third time that Henderson completed his hat trick with the man advantage at the halfway point in the period to drag the score back to 5-4.

Pirates again responded quickly as Cowan took the score to six within two minutes, but another powerplay goal from Spiers with less than five minutes remaining ensure a nervy finish, with the visitors happy to hear the final buzzer and record only their second away win in the SNL so far. After the disappointment of last week’s defeat in Elgin, Pirates will be glad to pick up the win, but will continue to be concerned at the lack of consistency away from home.

They have another difficult road trip to Dundee Comets facing them next weekend.

Scorers: Johnston (2+0), Cowan & Campbell (both 1+1), Hassan & Orr (both 1+0), Riddell (0+3),Guy & Miller (both 0+1)

Penalties: Thorp 25, Henderson 4, McMillan & Campbell (both 2)