CARL GREENHOUS, player-coach of the Gillingham-based ice hockey team Invicta Dymamos, summed up last night's game 4-3 home defeat by Isle of Wight in one word: "disappointing".

Greenhous said: "Although the effort was there for the most part, a few lapses, particularly from face-offs cost us a couple of goals. It was a disappointing finish to the end of the year and not the best Christmas present to the fans."

Netminders Andy Moffat, who was man of the match for the Raiders, and Matt Van Der Velden, pulled off big early saves and Duane Ward was once again Invicta's danger man involved in most of the attacking play.

The first penalty of the match was called at 6.42 on Raiders' Andy Pickles for crosschecking, but worryingly it was the visitors who came closest to scoring shorthanded.

The Mos had Van Der Velden to thank for keeping a clean sheet in the first period, and Matt Beveridge to thank for giving them the lead with a scuffed back handed shot at 18.55 assisted by Greenhous and Ward on the powerplay. The second period saw Raiders square the game at 24.27 - David Kozier finishing from Brad Kenny.

The game began to get scrappy at the midway point with puck dumping and passes going astray, and the Raiders took the lead at 38.41 when Tony Blaize managed to find the gap between Van Der Velden's pads and the post.

With just seven seconds left of the period Jake French played the puck out to Ward who slotted the puck underneath Moffat to leave it all to play for in the third.

Unfortunately it was the visitors who came out flying and took the lead at 41.14 when the impressive Kenny slotted home.

French came close to pulling it level at 46.45 but again the shot was just wide in spite of a late deflection by Beveridge.

Ten minutes to go and Peter Korff made an exceptional play to steal the puck in the offensive zone as the Raiders tried to move it up the ice. His interception let in fast-skating man of the match Elliot Andrews to score.

Poor defensive play straight from a face-off led to Raiders scoring what was to be the winning goal at 52.00 Kozier scoring assisted by Kenny.