Deeside Dragons’ hopes of making this season’s play-offs were dealt another blow as they were narrowly beaten by Widnes Wild in their Laidler Conference clash.

Simon Furnival found the net twice, while Matthew Wainwright bagged himself three assists in the game, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a 5-4 defeat at the home of their local rivals.

Following their decisive victory, the league’s defending champions – Widnes – stay in fifth place but move five points clear of the Dragons having played three games less.

Despite the devastating result, Deeside Dragons player coach, Marc Lovell, is pleased with his side’s determination.

He said: “I’m disappointed we didn’t get the points, but once again we put in a pretty good performance.

“The game was a bit of a scrappy one and it could have gone either way. If we managed to score that late fifth goal then we probably would have been the ones who went on to win, but the luck was with them in the end.”

Widnes capitalised on a slow start from their visitors as goals from Daniel Haid and Shaun Dippnall fired the hosts 2-0 up inside four minutes.

But the Dragons clawed their way back into the game a little over a minute later when captain James Parsons combined with Radim Reznicek who fed the puck on to Simon Furnival who made no mistake in pulling one back for the away team.

Matthew Wainwright then claimed his first assist of the match when he helped Chris Jones to make it 2-2 in the 14th minute. The home side soon regained their lead, though, as Michal Novak put Wild ahead again two minutes later.

However, that wasn’t to be the end of a dramatic first period, as Wainwright set up Chris Keating to score his sixteenth goal of the season in the final minute to level the scores once more.

After an end to end opening 20 minutes, both sides were a little more cautious in the second period with it taking ten minutes for the next breakthrough.

Dippnall scored his second of the game on the half hour mark to restore Widnes’ lead, but a stubborn Deeside equalised again when Wainwright helped Furnival to also find the net for a second time two minutes later.

Widnes pressed for a winner in the final period but found the Dragons netminder Sam Bolwell in fine form to keep them out on a number of occasions.

She was eventually beaten, though, as Berwyn Hughes found a way past her to score what proved to be the winner for Widnes in a 5-4 victory.

The result leaves Deeside sixth in the division, and six points off the play-off places having played a game more. But the Flintshire club could keep their play-off hopes alive if they manage to beat third placed Altrincham Aces on Sunday.

Elsewhere in the Laidler Conference over the weekend, Hull Jets stay top after they demolished Widnes 12-0 a day before Wild bounced back against the Dragons.

Bradford Bulldogs also beat Blackburn 8-1 to keep themselves level on points with the league leaders Hull, while Altrincham were ruthless in their scintillating 15-3 victory away to Sheffield Senators.