IT’S a pity Bracknell Bees could not play Hull every week, writes Dave Wright.

Three of their nine wins this season have come against the Pirates, the latest being a 4-3 success at The Hive last Sunday.

These two sides are battling to avoid the wooden spoon in the EPIHL with only one point currently separating them.

They meet again on Humberside next month in a match that will go along way towards deciding which side will finish above each other at the foot of the table.

It is hard to imagine either of these two sides finishing out of the bottom two, with eighth-placed Manchester 17 points better off than the Bees and 16 ahead of the Pirates.

Bracknell, however, have no intention of giving up the fight to improve their position.

They shrugged off a 4-0 home defeat by Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday to beat Hull 24 hours later.

They trailed 1-0 and 3-2 before scoring two late goals, with Scott Spearing grabbing the winner with just under two minutes remaining.

After the game, Spearing told the News: “It’s been a while since we last won and it’s a positive weekend for us.

“We played really well last night and could have come out with the two points, but things did not go our way, but they did tonight which is nice.

“It is always good to come back from a deficit.

“Just one good shift can change a season and we will take a positive outlook into our game at Guildford.”

That fixture is tonight (Wednesday) and will be followed by an attractive home clash with league leaders Basingstoke Bison on Sunday (6pm).

“These are going to be two tough games for us,” said Spearing.

“If you put the teams against each other on paper, we have not got a chance.

“But we are going to work hard and stay positive.

"You have just to keep fighting.

“Guildford are full of superstars and will probably think they are just going to walk it tonight.

“But if we can sneak a goal we could surprise them.”

If the Bees are to shock Guildford and Basingstoke then a lot could depend on netminder Alex Mettam.

He has been their best overall player this season, pulling off a string of top-drawer saves match after match.

“Metts is an unbelievable goalie,” said Spearing.

“If he keeps them out, you have put yourself in with a chance .

“He makes great saves at key times of the game and that bails us out massively. He gives the defence confident and plays the puck really well.

“He’s calm, really level-headed and a great guy to have in the dressing room.”

There was another boost for the Bees last weekend when influential player-coach Lukas Smital returned from injury, having been sidelined for several weeks with a broken finger.

Lewis Turner was also back in action, having recovered from concussion.

“It’s nice to look around the [changing] room and not see it so empty,” added Spearing.

“Last week we only started with 11 and that dropped down to 10 because I got chucked out for high sticking.”

Spearing kept his cool last weekend and was rewarded with two goals against Hull.

The visitors went ahead through James Chilcott on 13:48 with a powerplay goal, with Spearing bringing the scores level on 16:08, also on powerplay, with skipper Matt Foord and Smital providing the assists.

The second period was half-a-minute old when Joe Galazzi put Bracknell ahead, finishing off a move involving Josh Smith and Alex Barker.

But the Bees were left reeling when Sam Towner, with a short-handed goal, and Nathan Salem both scored within 52 seconds of each other in the 29th minute to put Tigers 3-2 ahead.

With Hull losing their composure and piling up the penalty minutes, Bees upped the pressure and just before the 54th-minute mark Galazzi and Ford set up the equaliser for Thompson.

There was still more to come before the end with Smital threading the ball into the danger area, from where Spearing hammered the puck home from close range with 108 seconds left on the clock.

Bees should have had another goal when, with Hull having withdrawn their netminder, Smital broke away unchallenged, but somehow he managed to place the ball wide of an empty net.