Whitley Warriors came within 10 minutes of beating Newcastle Vipers in a challenge game at Hillheads last night, winning the first two periods to lead 4-2 before late goals spared the Elite League outfits blushes; but afterwards coach Simon Leach had nothing but praise for his team.

Ryan Sample opened the Whitley scoring within a minute of the Vipers going ahead at 1.33, with Callum Watson making it 2-2 on 17 minutes.

The Warriors then went ahead through Adam Reynolds just seconds later to take a 3-2 first interval lead and then extended that advantage through Pavol Melichercik when he scored the only goal of the middle session at 21.49.

That they eventually lost to a goal four minutes from time was almost cruel after all the effort put in, but only going down by one to a professional side playing two leagues above shows much of the character the Warriors have; especially as fellow English National League outfit Blackburn Hawks had lost 16-0 to Elite League side Braehead Clan the night before.

“I knew the Vipers weren’t going to come out and treat this as a fun game, because it was their last chance to get ice-time before the league campaign gets underway; so we all knew it would be tough,” he said.

“But we played hard from start to finish too,” he added, “and I think we gave them a little bit of a shock. Maybe they underestimated us a little, but we certainly had them rattled at times.

“Over the game, as you would expect, we were out-shot, but it’s the score that counts and after two periods, we had done enough to lead.

“I’m just over the moon with the performance of the whole team,” Leach continued, “every player on that bench has shown fantastic commitment to the cause; and we have so very nearly caused a massive upset.”

Whitley man of the match was netminder James Flavell, who thwarted the Elite League side with string of top quality saves throughout the game.

“We was unbelievable tonight, some of the saves he pulled off tonight were exceptional,” enthused Leach.

“He stood tall when we needed him, but that is James. All of last season he was there when required and tonight he has shown to a wider audience what a good keeper he is.”

“The whole point of the game was to give the Vipers an extra work-out ahead of the season; and we’ve maybe done that and more tonight,” concluded the Whitley coach.