Blackburn Hawks 2 Kingston 6 ; Kingston 7 Blackburn Hawks 4

JIM PENNYCOOK returned as Lancashire Hawks went to Hull and back - for no reward.

The player-coach, troubled for weeks with a groin injury, finally got playing again last night and marked his comeback with a goal.

But Pennycook was powerless to prevent his team falling foul of the Kingston Hawks for the second night in a row.

On Saturday at the Arena he watched from the sidelines as Hawks twice took early leads only to crumble late on.

It looked good when Alan Hough put the locals ahead on 11 minutes and, shortly after the start of period two, Hawks were 2-1 up thanks to Jeff Daniels.

But Kingston was not prepared to leave with anything other than a win and an impressive recovery - emphasised by a 0-3 rout in the final period - settled matters the way of the visitors.

Period scores: 1-1, 1-2, 0-3.

Scoresheet: Alan Hough 1+0, Jeff Daniels 1+0, Adrian Lomonaco 0+2, Neil Abel 0+1.

There seemed little chance for Hawks in the return on Humberside last night - and so it proved. Pennycook had strong words with his side at the end of a first period in which Kingston rattled up a 3-0 advantage. Things improved marginally in period two and considerably late on - Hawks taking the final period with Adrian Lomonaco leading the charge.

But successive Northern Premier League defeats hardly represents sound form - even though the weekend opponents are favourites to lift the crown come next March.

Colin Downie got a rare test of netminding last night, playing for 20 minutes instead of Barry Hollyhead, and fared well alongside man of the match Mika Pynnonen.

But Hawks still lack consistency as a team unit and they cannot expect to flourish until a solution is found.

Period scores: 3-0, 3-2, 1-2.

Scoresheet: Jeff Daniels 1+1, Adrian Lomonaco 2+0, Jim Pennycook 1+1, Mike Pynnonen 0+3, Tom Burridge 0+1, Bobby Haig 0+1.

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