Johnson brace can't end Vipers' poor festive streak

11:45am Friday 28th December 2007

Wednesday, December 26, 2007 Elite League: Manchester Phoenix 3-2 Mobilx Newcastle Vipers

VIPERS' poor festive streak continued with a Boxing Day defeat in Manchester, despite a brace from Shaun Johnson.

The hard-working centreman's fourth and fifth goals of the campaign failed to stop the Phoenix blazing to their fourth victory in five games as they went on to win 3-2.

It had started brightly for the visitors with Johnson scoring after only 4.45, but home pressure finally paid off in the opening period when Simon Mangos levelled at 16.09.

Phoenix continued to look the more dangerous in the middle session and took control of the game with goals by Sean Starke at 34.57 and then Brett Clouthier on the powerplay at 38.29.

Vipers made a big effort to claw the game back in the final period but their only reward was a second goal from Johnson at 51.49.

An incident late on saw Ben Storey and Phoneix's Joe Tallari ejected on five plus game misconducts for slashing and tripping respectively.

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