Rusty Barons struggle in Midlands derby

Solihull Barons 3-10 Telford Titans
By Gareth Thomson, Barons Web Admin

Despite an amazing rapid sequence of goals at the end of the second period, Sunday witnessed a poor Barons performance which saw them loose out against a confident Telford side in the opening game of 2012.

With a string of strong performances at the end of 2011, Solihull Barons went into their first game of 2012 with a strong sense of optimism. The prospect of a derby game against local rivals Telford added to the hope of a good game from the Hobs Moat Road team. The Telford Titans were similarly confident, having opened their new year account the evening before, with a convincing win against the league leading Billingham Stars.

 After a hard-hitting opening couple of minutes, it was the Titans who scored the first goal of the year on Solihull ice after 4 minutes, Adam Joseph Taylor scoring from Ryan Stanton and Karol Jets. Much of the rest of the first period was to and fro, with both sides having chances. The Titans extended their lead in the final five minutes of the period, with a second goal from Taylor on a power play.

The second period opened much as the first had ended. The Barons, looking rusty from the three week Christmas break, showed a lack of sharpness gifting the Telford side opportunities, while a strong Titans defence frustrated the Barons attack. At around the half hour mark, Telford opened up their lead further with two more goals.

A stunning final minute of the second period gave the Barons and their supporters some hope that a comeback could still be on the cards. In the space of only 20 seconds two goals by Richard Slater sandwiched a third by Rob Eley, bringing the deficit down to a single goal and leaving Ben Hunt, the Telford netminder, solid to this point, stunned.

This was as good as it got for the Barons with Telford regrouping over the break, to come out in the third with a couple of early goals, before two further powerplay goals by the Titans put the result beyond doubt. With the Barons heads down, the Titans, via Chris Jones, brought their total for the night to 10. The game ended acrimoniously with tempers flaring across the timekeepers bench.

A disappointing performance then by the Barons who must regroup for this weekend's double away fixtures at Trafford and Whitley, before meeting Trafford again at the Solihull rink on the 22nd January.

Goals: R Slater (2), Eley

Assists: E Slater (2), R Slater, A Whitehouse (2)

Man of the match: Dale White

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Coaches for this weekend's away games are due to depart Hobs Moat Road at 1:30pm on Saturday (Trafford) and 11:30am Sunday (Whitley) and seats can be reserved by contacting thesolihullbarons@gmail.com.