Invicta Dynamos head coach Karl Lennon felt there were plenty of wins to take from a tough pre-season encounter.

Higher-league side Romford Raiders eased to a 16-5 aggregate victory, to claim the Kent & Essex Cup, as their three imports showed their class - scoring 12 of the goals over the weekend against the Mos.

It was a tricky test for Karl Lennon’s NIHL South Division 1 side but the coach was pleased with what they got out of the encounter.

Lennon said: “I said to the guys leading into the weekend that firstly we wanted to get match reps in, we wanted to be ready for next weekend and certainly with the roster we had available to us they got some serious minutes across the weekend. That was objective no.1 achieved.

“I also wanted us to give a good account of ourselves and I think they absolutely did that. The measure of the performance from my perspective was not in the two games collectively, but the periods we played.

“In four of the six across the weekend we were either one goal behind or even on the score, which is really good.

“We had two poor periods and even those you can say that was over 10-minute spells of the 20, where we didn’t really focus in the right ways or made mistakes of judgement, and that cost us quite dramatically.

“Our undoing in those situations was a gulf of quality when it comes to the international players they have on the roster, they have three compared to our two which is a difference of course, and the pedigree is very high.

“I was really happy with how we competed over the whole weekend. I wanted to win, of course, that’s what we set out to do but there were many wins within the game in terms of performances and all the different things that I want this team to be.

“For me, these guys are new to each other for the most part, we can’t expect too much playing against a good side like we did, it was a big ask and challenge, but the guys acquitted themselves well and I was super proud in everything they did.”

The challenge for the Mos against the NIHL side was made harder by the absence of six senior players, including four defencemen, for various reasons.

Lennon pulled in a couple of loan players from Peterborough and a return on Sunday from former player Taylor Chard to boost the numbers.

On the Saturday there was a first appearance and a first goal for Evan Chard - racing back from a game with the under-18s at Slough in time to make his debut senior appearance for the Dynamos.

“It was quite a day for him!” said the coach.

“He scored in the under-18 game and came from Slough to our home game that we had and managed to score in the third period, which was a beautiful moment.”

Evan is the fourth Chard to play for the Dynamos. His dad is a retired shirt legend of the club and helps with the coaching, Taylor played on Sunday and his brother Brandon has just left the club to go to university.

Lennon said: “The goal was quite a special moment for him and his family, I was delighted for him. He is a good kid and he has worked really hard throughout the course of last season when he trained with us and then this season he has done well and been given the opportunity.”

The Mos lost Saturday’s game 10-4 and were beaten 6-1 on the Sunday but Lennon added: “We take heart from the performances and don’t dwell on the fact that we lost by five goals on Sunday and six on Saturday.

“We feel very strongly as a group that with our full complement of players that score is not what it would have been. We can’t read too much into it apart from the fact that we’re much better for it.”