DIRECTORS of the Gillingham-based Invicta Dynamos ice hockey team have revealed their disappointment at not being able to emulate last season’s success.

The directors have issued a statement explaining why they had not been able to attract new faces to the Ice Bowl during the past few weeks and why things had not gone as well on the ice this season as many fans had hoped.

They said: “We employed the services of three separate agents in an attempt to find an import player new to the country. Unfortunately, the agents could not find any players that either qualified to play in our league and fell within our budget.

“We also were in talks with a couple of former ENPL imports, but the players either placed demands that were beyond our budget or we did not feel would add to the team.

“On a similar note we had promising discussions with a couple of British players. Unfortunately, there are far too few quality British players to go around the clubs to meet the demand and we lost out.

“British players are mainly settled with their local teams and do not want come April to find they have no housing and no job.”

The directors acknowledged that many supporters were disappointed the Dynamos had not matched up this season with their achievements of last season.

“Rest assured that we as the club's management are also disappointed that things have not gone as well as hoped,” the statement said. Not making excuses, there are a few circumstances that have not helped with our preparation for this season.

“The franchise for the operation of ice hockey from the Gillingham Ice Bowl was put out for tender at the end of last season.

“This was awarded to us mid-June 2002 for a period of two years. This put us in the position that we could not attempt to sign any players, as we would be liable to pay compensation for any broken contracts, until we knew if we would have the franchise.

“By this time most British players had already agreed terms for the next season, putting us immediately on a back foot.”

The directors said that the club's championship winning team of last season was built up over a period of three years.

“We won the championship within the parameters defined by the EIHA and within our budget,” said the statement. “We saw several British players make the step up to the senior team including the likes of Jonathan Gray, Greg Hales and Peter Korff.

“With the changes in the non-EIHA trained players ruling for this season we needed more depth in our British players. With the lack of British players available to us we struggled to boost the squad.”

However, the directors believe the club's new youth set-up puts them in a good position for the long-term future.

They said: “This season has been the first for some time where by the hockey from under-10s to senior is administered by one group.

“We have clear aims; one being to develop the junior players to be the Dynamos of the future and another being to put out the most competitive team within our budget. This has failed this year mainly due to the reasons given.

“This is the only way forward to produce a sustainable senior team and is made even more imperative given likely further reductions in the number of imports in our league.”