Blackburn Hawks emerged from an eventful weekend of ice-hockey action with a victory and a defeat.

The town team beat Trafford Metros 6-4 on Saturday in the English Division 1, before going down 8-3 at home to Solway Sharks in the Northern League – but the results barely begin to tell the full story.

Ahead of the game against Trafford, former Metros forward Sean Day was involved in a road accident, in which his car caught fire and was written off.

However, he delayed going to hospital in order to play against his old club and helped inspire Hawks to victory.

An end-to-end encounter saw Hawks take the lead four times, only for the home side to peg them back on each occasion. With just four minutes remaining, Hawks took a penalty, but ended up scoring a short-handed goal.

In a frantic finale, Trafford pulled their netminder to gain a two-man advantage, but Chris Arnone fired a shot from his own goal line to score an empty net goal and secure a 6-4 win.

General manager Gary Rogers said: “We showed great determination and the team spirit in the group is really growing, which is pleasing to see. Nothing typified that more than Sean Day’s decision to play, despite his accident en route. We were very grateful for that and it contributed to an excellent all-round team effort.”

Hawks came unstuck a day later against a strong Solway side, although they were hindered by injuries.

As a result, netminder Danny Brittle was asked to play in attack, while forward Sam Dunford filled in in defence and they went down 8-3.