Phantoms snapped a six-game losing streak in dramatic fashion to celebrate the first home game in charge for a new coach

Pollard’s first match in his new position had ended in a 4-1 defeat at Sheffield Steeldogs on Saturday, but the city side showed plenty of pluck to come from behind and beat Romford Raiders 5-4 with an overtime goal at Planet Ice on Sunday.

Phantoms remain next-to-bottom in the standings with four wins and eight defeats in 12 outings ahead of a Wednesday night (October 28) trip to Romford. Phantoms then travel to leaders MK Lightning on Saturday (October 31, 7pm face-off) before hosting Telford Tigers on Sunday (5.30pm).

Standings: 1 MK P12 20pts, 2 Hull P12 20pts, 3 Romford P12 17pts, 4 Swindon P10 16pts, 5 Sheffield P12 14pts, 6 Leeds P12 12pts, 7 Basingstoke P12 12pts, 8 Telford P11 12pts, 9 Solway P12 8pts, 10 Phantoms P12 8pts, 11 Bristol P11 4pts.

A hat-trick from import Adam Berg led the fightback against the Raiders before Janne Laakkonen notched the winning goal in overtime to send a success-starved home crowd into raptures. It was the first time Phantoms had led in the game.

Proceedings didn’t get off to the best of starts though as, after Dom Gabaj had been denied at one end, it was Raiders who took the lead courtesy of a big Jarrett Baker slapshot into the top corner.

Three penalties in the opening 10 minutes gave Phantoms a good chance to level, but Raiders netminder Cole Ceci and his defence stood tall to the test, with Luke Ferrara going closest to the leveller in a first period that ended 1-0 to the visitors.

Raiders then doubled their advantage just 37 seconds into the second period when Jake Sylvester ripped a fierce shot past Phantoms netminder Matt Hennessey.

Then, after Tjay Anderson missed what looked like a certain goal from in close, Phantoms got on the board through Berg’s fine individual effort on 24.07.

But Romford’s two goal advantage was restored at 33:38 when Max Lewis fired through traffic only for Berg to strike again with just two seconds of the session to go after some great work from Dillon Lawrence.

Phantoms started the final period strongly with Henry Newell prominent, but the game appeared to be up for Pollard’s men when Dawson Osborn made it 4-2 to Raiders with 14 minutes to play.

But Phantoms dug deep and a powerful strike from Lawrence at 53.06 following a Laakkonen pass set up a tremendous finale which then saw Berg pounce on a defensive slip four minutes from time to send the game into overtime.

Phantoms started the extra five minutes on the powerplay, but they needed a great double save from Hennessey to stay level before Laakkonen stepped up to claim the winning goal.

Phantoms had also battled hard in Sheffield and it was a tied game at 1-1 after the first period with Newell netting for the visitors. The home side edged the second session 1-0 before adding two more goals in the final seven minutes.