MATCH REPORT | PHANTOMS SPLIT WEEKEND WITH WIN OVER RAIDERS

Luke Ferrara scored his second hat-trick in as many home games as the WALDECK Peterborough Phantoms slip their weekend by beating the Romford Raiders on Sunday night.

Phantoms, once again without the services of a number of their regular fixtures due to injury, almost took the lead when Janne Laakkonen found Cam Hough and he attempted a wraparound, but he couldn’t squeeze the effort into the net.

But they did the front when Brad Bowering found time and space in the offensive zone and ripped his effort into the top corner.

The equaliser followed just over three minutes later, though, when Shaun Miller scored into the empty net after an unfortunate mistake by Hayden Lavigne.

Phantoms went back in front when Hough and Ferrara combined to set up Laakonen out in front, and the Finnish forward lifted his shot into the roof of the net.

They extended their lead to two in the opening minute of the second period when Ferrara stepped in from the blue line and fired his effort beyond Thomas Brown and into the net.

But the Raiders cut the lead back down to one when Andrew Shewfelt blasted a powerplay goal in from the right circle.

And Shewfelt almost levelled the scores moments later, but saw his breakaway shot saved by Lavigne.

Lavigne’s efforts at one end were rewarded at the other when Laakonen found Hough advancing down the right wing and he cut through the right circle before finishing into the far corner.

It was five when Tom Palmer and Joe Gretton broke towards goal 2-on-1 - Palmer’s effort was kicked into the path of Gretton, who found the back of the net with the rebound.

Ferrara notched his second of the night at 35:50, capitalising on good work by Cam Hough - who pulled the puck back from behind the goal, allowing the Phantoms captain to snap his effort into the bottom corner.

And for the second time in the game, Phantoms scored in the first minute of a period, when the top line went tic-tac-toe and Ferrara completed his hat-trick with the finish on the back door.

Luke Clark replaced Lavigne in the Phantoms net with 15:42 to play.

Romford tallied their third of the evening with just under ten minutes to play when Miller picked out Jake Sylvester from behind the goal and Sylvester wristed his shot into the bottom corner.

Austin Mitchell-King then went close to a Phantoms 8th goal, but Brown pulled off a great stop to deny him after a set up by Jarvis Hunt.

Shewfelt notched his second of the night in the final minute of the game, but Phantoms held on for a comfortable Sunday night win on home ice.