Nottingham Lions 6 : 2 SJC Solihull Barons
31st March 2013
Rich Slater got the Barons opener but it was a difficult night for the Solihull side. Sam Hewitt had busy night in the Solihull net.
Andrew Whitehouse put in a lot of effort for little return.
Neil Adams managed to get the Barons second goal of the evening.
Chris Allen collected the Man of the Match award given to "The Team".

Disappointing performance leaves Barons promotion hopes hanging by a thread

By Gareth Thomson

After the comprehensive defeat of the Nottingham Lions the previous week in Solihull it was, by contrast, a poor, error strewn effort from the Sheldon Jewellery Centre Solihull Barons in Nottingham on Sunday evening. The defeat leaves the Barons play-off hopes hanging by a thread and needing second place challengers, the Deeside Dragons, to loose in their final game of the season thisĀ  weekend.

A large Solihull support made the trip up the A42 and with the Lions also drawing a good support, the game was switched to the number one ice pad in Nottingham - the impressive Capital FM Arena, home of the Elite League Nottingham Lions. This venue of course also plays host to the likes of Justin Bieber and One Direction, so it should have come as no surprise that there was further dubious entertainment on show on Sunday.

Things could not have gotten off to a worse start for the Barons. Within the first minute a poor pass in his own zone by the Barons Phil Lee went straight to the Lions and Gareth O'Flaherty made no mistake to open the scoring for Nottingham. The game had barely restarted and the Lions had doubled their lead through a soft goal by Michael Rose.

The Lions chalked up their third goal at the 10 minute mark via a Luke Branin powerplay effort and this was quickly followed by a fourth when Dan Hazeldine seized the opportunity presented by further Barons defensive errors.

Richard Slater gave the Solihull support a glimpse of what could be as the first period closed. Phil Lee found Slater in space in the central ice and the Barons forward capitalised on the opportunity to pull one back for Solihull.

The second period was a much better session for the Barons. Sam Hewitt in the Barons net had gotten his eye in and the players had started to cope a bit better with the big and slightly unpredictable ice surface. The improved play started to pay off. With three minutes of the second period remaining Joe Henry sought out Neil Adams skating in on the Lions back post to bring the Barons within two goals of Nottingham.

What hopes the Barons might have had were however dashed early in the third. Mike Rodger was sent to the box for tripping, almost immediately followed by Adz Andrews unnecessarily picking up 2 minutes for roughing. The Lions made no mistakes with the 5 on 3 powerplay as Joe Wightman slotted in the Lions 5th from the restart. Salt was further rubbed into the Barons wounds with two minutes to go as Ben Wood finalised the score at 6-2 in favour of Nottingham.

A bad night then for Solihull and one which the players and management will reflect on. The Barons and their support will now be left to watch social media updates on Sunday to see if Hull can beat Deeside to give Solihull second in the league.

Goals : R Slater, Adams
Man of the Match : "The Team"

Original photography courtesy of Keith & Jenny Davies