THE score makes it look this was a straightforward victory but this was far from the truth.

Aces had had an easy home victory over Sheffield a month ago but since then Sheffield had signed the vastly experienced defender, Neil Abel.

Sheffield had started hard but the Aces were first on the score sheet through Simon Mills.

However, the home side came more into the game with them outworking the Altrincham side.

Sheffield got an equaliser midway through the period when Rick Ashton let in a hopeful shot and soon after, they took the lead on the powerplay.

Aces were continuing to be put off their stride and defensive lapses saw Scimitars add three pore in the second period against just one reply from Greg Allen.

The turning point of the game came just before the end of the period when a tussle between Abel and Aces' Nick Crawley developed into a fight which saw both players sent off.

This left the interval score at 5-2 but Aces were now acing a side without their defensive lynch pin.

Goals from Greg Allen and Tim Dempsey (2) within six minutes of the restart brought the scores level as Aces now had the space with which to exploit their better ability and from now on, there was only one team in it.

With further goals coming from Allen, Dempsey, Jason Hewitt and Alan Gemmell, Aces were able to achieve a fortunate victory.

This weekend sees them face a hard game against local rivals, Blackburn, at home on Sunday after a visit to Grimsby on Saturday.