Invicta Dynamos must wait to see if they’ve done enough to clinch a semi-final cup spot - but in the meantime face two massive challenges.

The Mos head to high-flying Solent Devils and the Hampshire team's challenging rink on Saturday before hosting the NIHL South leaders and last year’s all-conquering side Streatham at Planet Ice, Gillingham on Sunday.

Karl Lennon’s side have an anxious wait before their place in the Southern Cup semi-finals is confirmed, with results elsewhere possibly coming into play. But with a 9-3 win over Oxford City Stars on Sunday, they did what they could, a result which also helped eradicate some of the failures that beset them 24 hours earlier in a 6-2 league defeat against the Junior Raiders.

Lennon took to social media after Saturday’s loss and didn’t mince his words after a poor effort against the Raiders. He got a response.

Lennon said: “I said what was needed after the game, we had no passion, no intensity, devoid of any application of systems that we had been doing in the last few weeks and I will take some of the responsibility for that, it is down to me to prepare them, I was away for training in the week on a business trip and that is semi professional sport, I take that on the shoulder, of course.

“We knew what we were walking into, we had played them a couple of times already this year and it was a complete underestimation of the players and errors in our play that resulted in goals that just killed any momentum gathering. They deserved their win, they played better than us, worked harder than us and that for me was the problem, working hard.

“When you play a game in any sport you have to work hard and if you don’t do that you don’t get results, it is quite simple, that was what happened, I won’t tolerate that, you always have to put effort in. We didn’t do that enough on Saturday and that is what fuelled us for Sunday.

“We needed to respond, we needed a reaction and then there was the opportunity infront of us to get to a cup semi-final. We changed a few things around which worked really well and we had a great start.”

Oxford took the lead but the Mos were soon into their stride and were 5-1 up at the end of the first period. By the end of play they had claimed a 9-3 win with man-of-the-match Richard Harris getting four and a hat-trick for Juraj Huska.

Goalie Owen Rider also earned praise from the coach for his part in the win, saying: “That was his best game of the season on Sunday, he was very good, we deserved the win and it was very positive.”

The Mos have now played their six group stage games in the Southern Cup but the other three sides still have fixtures left. With a goal difference of plus 14, far superior to anyone else, Lennon hopes they’ve done enough. The top two in the four-team group qualify for the semi-finals on the weekend of January 14/15.

Lennon said: “The boys were down after Saturday, they knew they had not just let themselves down but the fans down because when you play like that it is not enough from us, but we got the right reaction on Sunday.

“For me, there wasn’t a player we carried on Sunday, everyone put in a great shift, physically, mentally, with passion as well, the fundamentals of sport that you have to give and if you have those you can be successful.”

Attention turns to the league now with a South Division 1 double header.

Solent Devils away is up first and Lennon knows just how tricky that will be. They are currently second in the standings, the only team to have beaten leaders Streatham in the league this season.

Lennon said: “Solent are on a bit of a storm and they have got a traditionally difficult ice rink to play in, half the size of ours, which is quite crazy. They are often very difficult to beat in their own rink for that simple reason, they are used to playing in that tight space.

“We will do small area games in the build-up to try and get people confident and used to that tight space, you can’t really prepare fully but we will do what we can.

“I was part of the team last year and we won down there and we did that by preparing in the right way, we will do that again this year and see how we get on.”

Streatham are then visiting Gillingham on Sunday (5.15pm).

“It is all about being competitive and running them as close as we can,” said the coach.

“We will do everything in our power to try and get a result, we have been close a couple of times and if we don’t give them a headstart in goals then it is a much closer game. Our focus on Sunday will be about sticking with them throughout the game and not giving up something early to them.

“They are the team to beat, the league, cup and play-off champions, they are the benchmark and who everyone should be striving to beat.”