BLACKBURN Hawks coach Jared Owen believes consis-tency in selection is beginning to be reflected in results.

Hawks bounced back from last week’s 2-1 defeat at Telford Titans to celebrate back-to-back wins this weekend.

Latvian Ivo Dimitrijevs scored five in an 8-0 win at home to Whitley Warriors on Saturday, then Sutton Sting were beaten 10-5 on Sunday, with Owen ben-efiting from welcoming a number of players back from injury.

Jordan Ashington remains a long-term casualty after requiring emergency surgery on the rup-tured spleen he suffered in the 8-4 defeat at Solway Sharks earlier this month.

But with others returning to action from minor knocks, Owen believes Hawks’ strength in depth is starting to have an impact.

“We’ve got the most players on the roster I’ve had but this season it’s the most injuries I’ve ever had to deal with,” he said.

“We’ve been struggling to put a squad of three lines out every week.

“But we were able to do that against Sutton and it shows what we can achieve when we do that.

“Ivo scored five on Saturday, but Sunday was a team effort with the goals spread out.

“That’s what we want then we’re not relying on one or two, and other teams can’t just concentrate on certain guys to try to stop them scoring.”

He added: “We’ve got the players, it’s just been a case of having them available. But they are starting to come back now in dribs and drabs.

“It makes a difference because if we’ve got three lines then it means the guys can rest properly.

“If we haven’t, they get worn down.

“But with consistency in selection has come a couple of good results this weekend.

“Hopefully we can carry that on into next week and in the run-up to Christmas.”

Ashington was in the crowd at Sutton on Sunday to cheer his team-mates on to a well-earned win.

Owen described the youngster’s injury as the worst he has seen in 24 years playing ice hockey.

But he believes the incident has helped to galvanise the team.

“It’s a double-edged sword because, although it was a big shock at the time, the guys have rallied behind him,” Owen ex-plained.

“It has brought the group to-gether.

“We ended up short in Solway but we said ‘look what we can do with eight players, imagine what we can do with 15-20.

“I’m really happy with the response from the guys.”

But Owen revealed he is still on the look-out for new players, and is hopeful of making at least one new signing ahead of Saturday’s game at Coventry.