BLACKBURN Hawks’ relegation woes worsened following single-goal defeats to two of the league’s leading outfits.

They lost 5-4 at home to Whitley Warriors on Saturday, before being edged out 3-2 away to second-placed side Sheffield Spartans 24 hours later.

That’s now three successive defeats for Neil Abel’s side, who have fallen five points adrift of third-from-bottom Kingston Jets in the English National League’s fight for survival.

Hawks had lost 5-1 to the Warriors just six days earlier and the writing looked on the wall when the North East side took an early lead.

But Hawks responded positively, with Peter Tapp seeing a shot well saved, before Rick Bentham and Les Millie combined for David Miekle to fire home the equaliser. With the momentum now firmly with the home side, Aaron Davies then handed Hawks the lead with an impressive flick from an almost impossible angle.

The Warriors reasserted their authority after the interval however with two unanswered efforts and a powerplay goal early in the third period looked to have secured them the spoils.

But Hawks refused to go down without a fight. After good work by Millie and Miekle, Bentham poked home at the second attempt and from a second successive powerplay, slick passing forced an opening in front of goal and Millie was able to pick his spot.

This looked to have rescued a priceless point for Hawks. However, the visitors took the puck down the ice and struck the match-winning goal.

Stunned by the late defeat, Hawks had hoped to make an early impression on their visit to Yorkshire, but after again falling behind with less than three minutes on the clock, a spate of penalties ultimately proved costly, with Hawks heading into the interval 2-0 down.

Davies pulled one back for the visitors with a superb solo goal, but the luck was with the Spartans, who secured a 3-1 lead. Tapp teed up Davies for his second but it wasn’t enough.