Match Report: Deeside D1 Dragons 4 – Billingham Stars 2 (NIHL Moralee Division)

Colin Cromie bagged a brace against Billingham (Photo by Angel Devlin Sports Photography)

Sunday 4^th October – NIHL Moralee Division: Deeside D1 Dragons 4 – Billingham Stars 2

The Deeside D1 Dragons continued their 100% start to the Moralee Division season with a narrow 4-2 victory at home to Billingham Stars on Sunday at Deeside Leisure Centre.

Despite the close scoreline, Deeside actually had the upper hand throughout the game and out-shot Billingham by over 2 to 1 over the course of the sixty minutes.

Colin Cromie opened the scoring for the Dragons on 4 minutes and the same player doubled the lead on 11 minutes to give Deeside a 2-0 lead at the first period break.

Billingham pulled a goal back just 20 seconds into the second period, making the most of a powerplay left over from the first period on a Deeside tripping call.  Despite numerous chances for the Dragons, Billingham scored again on 29 minutes – on another powerplay – and the game remained finely balanced at 2-2 at the second interval.

Deeside edged ahead again on 48 minutes with a goal from Theo Malone but a spell of niggly penalties hindered their hopes of pushing further ahead.

Billingham then got into penalty trouble of their own and, in the midst of all this, Matty Barlow scored a 56^th minute goal to restore daylight between the two teams.  That was the last goal of the game and Deeside held on to notch up an important 4-2 victory.

Following the weekend games, Deeside remain in 4^th place in the Moralee Division table with 12 points from their 4 wins to date - and they have games in hand over all of the other teams.

Solihull Barons remain top of the table with 19 points from 7 games with Blackburn Hawks in second with 16 from 7 and Widnes Wild in third with 14 from 6.

The D1 Dragons now have a weekend off before their next game which will see their first away fixture of the season - against Leeds Knights on Saturday 17^th October.  They are back at home the following day when they take on Solihull Barons at Deeside Leisure Centre, 5.15pm face off.

The D2 Dragons have back to back home games this weekend - against Coventry Blaze on Saturday 10^th October and league leaders Sutton Sting on Sunday 11^th October at Deeside Leisure Centre.

Supporters are asked to take note of the fact that both games will face off at the later time of 6.30pm. 

The Dragons women are away to Nottingham Vipers this Saturday 10^th October.