Landlords Lee Valley lose opener

National League Division 1

Solent Devils 9 London Raiders 4

Raiders slumped to a disappointing defeat on the south coast last night.

Danny Marshall’s men had won 4-1 on their previous visit to the small rink in Gosport but found themselves behind inside three minutes as Andrew Magee netted the first of his four goals for the home side.

Raiders – who gave a debut to young defenceman Lewis Jones, but were without Frankie Harvey and Ross Wilkinson – put that early setback behind them to level through Perry Richardson’s first goal for the club and took the lead just 25 seconds later through Tom Davis.

Vaclav Drabek netted before the first break to put Raiders 3-1 up but Solent then netted five unanswered goals to turn the match on its head.

Magee and Mitchell Murray beat Michael Gray in the middle session to level the scores, before Alex Murray put Solent ahead for a second time early in the final frame.

Magee struck twice in 13 seconds to make it 6-3 and force Marshall to call a timeout, before Drabek picked up a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

Richardson’s second goal gave the visitors late hope but it proved a false dawn, as George Norcliffe made it 7-4 soon after.

Mitchell Murray and Ryan McFarlane added late shorthanded goals to rub salt into Raiders wounds and make it three losses in a row following defeats against Invicta and Chelmsford a week earlier.

Raiders return to cup action with a trip to Invicta next Sunday, but will need an improved performance.

Scorers, Solent: Magee 4+2, M Murray 2+4 A Murray 1+2 McFarlane 1 Norcliffe 1 Goddard 0+2 Rudkin 0+1 Campbell 0+1.

Raiders: Richardson 2 Davis 1+1 Drabek* 1 Marshall 0+1 Smith 0+1 Peters 0+1 Lee 0+1.

Penalty minutes: Solent 22 Raiders 28.

Shots faced: Standing (Solent) 47 Gray (Raiders) 74.

****

Division 2 South East

Chelmsford Warriors 11 Lee Valley Lions 0

Lee Valley ended up well beaten on their first outing of the new Division Two South East season.

Lions had gone down to a friendly defeat against Streatham a month earlier and could not find a way past Chelmsford goalie Sonny Phillips, who made 19 saves for his shutout.

First-period goals from Oliver Baldock, Nathan Long (powerplay) and Brandon Ayliffe put Chelmsford in charge, with Courtney Grant, Charlie Topping, Gary Brown and Charlie Ascott beating Aaron Mallet in the second period as the gap grew to 7-0.

James Tipple took over in the Lions net for the final stanza but could not stem the flow of goals as Bailey Chittock struck twice and Baldock netted his second on a powerplay to put Chelmsford in double figures.

Jake Sylvester completed the tally in the final minute to leave Lions with work to do ahead of their London derby against Haringey on Saturday.