JOSH Smith earned an early birthday present for himself by winning the man-of-the-match award for Bracknell Bees on Sunday, writes Dave Wright.

Smith, who will be 18 tomorrow (Thursday), scored twice as the Bees defeated Hull Pirates 6-3 to record their first win in 18 matches.

Cash-strapped Bees are putting their faith in youngsters and so will be delighted to see players like Smith making a name for themselves in the EPIHL.

“I have played for Bracknell since I was six years old,” said Smith, who has moved up through the club’s age-group teams, the Stingers, Drones and Hornets.

As he showed on Sunday, the talented Smith fully deserves to be in the Bees squad, scoring two well-taken goals.

“It was really nice to win the game and good to get back to winning ways,” said the forward.

Bees remain at the foot of the table, but are now just two points behind Hull and nine points adrift of third-from-bottom Manchester Phoenix.

Smith added: “Hopefully, we can go on a roll now. There is still a long way to go this season.”

The youngster from Farnborough rightly came in from praise from Bees player-coach Lukas Smital, who said after the game: “Josh had a good game tonight and scored a couple of goals. I am happy for him.”

Smith opened the scoring with less than two minutes on the clock when he was first to react after Matt Foord’s effort had been blocked.

Boosted by this goal, Bees settled into the game quicker than their visitors and a good spell of pressure saw them go close to increasing their advantage.

However, they were caught out by a swift counter-attack in the 13th minute when Sam Towner brought the scores level.

Bees?, who had hammered Hull 10-3 and 7-2 early in the season, were officially credited with five shots on target during the first period, but Smital ? wasn’t alone in thinking it was a few more.

The number increased to 16 in the next period as Bracknell enjoyed solid periods of domination.

After Milan Kostourek had twice gone close, the pressure paid off when Smith restored his side’s lead in the 21st minute.

And five minutes later Kostourek made it 3-1 with a rising shot into the net.

Alex Mettam was the least busier of the two netminders, but he never dropped his concentration and denied the Pirates just before the end of the second period and again just after the resumption.

Vanya Antonov took the scoring honours in the third period, finding the net on 44.49 and again two minutes later.

And it became three goals in a seven-minute blitz when Lewis Turner added his name to the scoresheet on 49.55.

It was an impressive display of finishing against a Hull side, who had come to The Hive on a high following their shock 5-1 win over Peterborough on Saturday.

With the game in the bag, Mettam was withdrawn from between the posts six minutes from time, allowing teenager Matt Smital some rare ice experience.

The 6ft 3in son of Lukas was beaten by Nathan Salem on 56.01 and by Hull captain Warren Tait with just under two minutes remaining. ??

“He did all right; the two goals he conceded came from perfect shots,” said Lukas.

“The second one came through traffic and he couldn’t see anything.

“You have to give youngsters an opportunity, as you would never develop anybody.”

?The player-coach added: “?We are going to have a good happy week (in training) as we get ready for next weekend when we will be looking to do it all over again.”

Bees – who lost 3-1 at Telford Tigers despite Carl Thompson’s goal on Saturday – are away to Peterborough this Saturday (7pm) and home to Swindon Wildcats on Sunday (6pm).