TONY Hand's Manchester Phoenix came away with a hard-fought win from across the Pennines on Sunday night after beating rivals Sheffield 2-1.

Phoenix, who are missing key players like captain Luke Boothroyd, defenceman Joe Graham and forwards Michal Psurny and Adam Walker due to injury, battled hard for the points and were just four minutes from a shutout in Sheffield.

Netminder Steve Fone turned in a man-of-the-match performance – turning away 46 of 47 shots, with his defence only breached once by Steeldogs’ Ashley Calvert in the dying minutes.

Phoenix, however, had already taken a 2-0 lead thanks to strikes from Frantisek Bakrlik, in the second period, and James Archer in the third to ensure a tight finish.

But it was a stern defensive effort afterwards that sealed the points.

It was a welcome boost for Phoenix who had left Hampshire empty-handed the previous night after going down 3-2 to Basingstoke Bison.

Two goals from the inform Bakrlik was not enough as the home side netted three first period goals via Joe Greener, Doug Sheppard and Ciaran Long which proved too big of a hole for a short-benched Manchester side who also lost Robin Kovar due to a game penalty for high sticks.

Hand said after the Bison match on Saturday: “It was really tough against a good Bison team on their big ice, but I thought the lads did tremendously well.

"Losing Adam Walker and then Robin Kovar made it even more difficult but we fought for every puck all night and were unlucky not to get something out of the game.”

Phoenix travel to Bracknell Bees on Saturday, before hosting Guildford Flames on Sunday, face-off 5.30pm.