Sheffield Steelers 2, Bracknell Bees 1

BRACKNELL Bees were unable to stop the runaway leaders of the Superleague Sheffield Steelers extending their lead to 13 points on Thursday, December 28.

However, they did run their Yorkshire rivals close as they tried to repeat a 4-0 win recorded earlier in the month at Bracknell.

The 5,600 crowd were left in silence as Bob Maudie opened the scoring from Joe Cardarelli at 8:20.

That was how it stayed until the first break as stalwart Brian Greer kept the ever-seeking Steelers at bay once more.

The home fans finally had something to cheer about at 23:04 as David Longstaff stepped out of the sin bin to score, assisted by Steve Carpenter and Dale Craigwell.

It was Craigwell again three minutes later who scored what turned out to be the game winner.

The final session saw no further scoring as Greer produced a string of good saves to deny Sheffield an insurance goal.

The Bees are back in action on Thursday night (8pm) when the Cardiff Devils make their first league trip of the season to Bracknell.