Invicta Dynamos suffered a heavy loss and a penalty defeat in their double header against the league leaders last weekend - and the big games keep coming.

The Mos are at Streatham Redhawks this Saturday and host Slough Jets on Sunday -two teams who could be fighting for top spot this season in NIHL South Division 1.

A short-benched Dynamos side lost 9-1 against current leaders Solent Devils last Saturday and let a 4-2 lead slip at home when they met again in Gillingham. That match ended 4-4 after extra-time and the visitors won it on penalties.

Lennon said: “It's a big week for us, a big month, in fact. We didn't start well on Saturday, but we've got to move on from that now.

“Our fans just want to see a team that competes and that will give everything. I don't think that the performance on Saturday was devoid of effort. I think it was just devoid of application. We didn't do the things that we promised each other we'd do and ultimately then they scored freely as a result.

“There was a 20-minute period where we were absolutely shocking.

“You have to look at these things in isolation. When you look across the weekend, we played six periods against Solent. We lost the first one, we heavily lost the second one, but the remaining four we tied. So there's not too much between the teams.

“When you look at it on the paperwork at the end of it, it says it was a horrendous defeat, and it felt like that. I was super upset on Saturday and I know that the guys were too. The reaction was the most important thing on Sunday.

“Were it not for a little bit of luck we might have got a win there as well. When things aren't going right, those things happen. You've just got to persevere. I think that luck will change with performances like that. If we put in performances like that, then we will start to turn a corner.”

The home match counted towards the standings in the South 1 League Cup group, as well as the league table. It means the Mos are still well positioned to progress after denying Solent maximum points at least.

Lennon said: “That’s a positive takeaway from Sunday’s game. We had a very good result down there early in the season in the first cup game that we played. We’ve also managed to pick up a point on the second cup game that we played against them, which means that they didn't get what they probably needed to keep in touching distance of us in that.

“We’ve put ourselves in a good position now to try and push through to get to a cup semi-final and that's in our hands.”

Their game with Streatham this Saturday and next month’s home meeting with Cardiff Fire will also count towards the table.

Lennon admitted the second period last Saturday against Solent wasn’t good, one which saw them concede six goals without reply. From 8-0 down there was no way back.

The coach said: “We started poorly, we gave away a goal very early in the first period down there and it was a poor play.

“It was a bad start but then across the first period, I thought we were pretty good, actually. We had a few chances but not enough quality and then they scored right at the end of the first period which was frustrating.

“I addressed a couple of the critical points that I felt like we really need to be careful of because they were getting a lot of chances and they were through our errors.

“We started (the second period) horrendously. I put my hands up. I got a penalty myself from the bench for questioning a call by the official. He gave me no warning and immediately gave us a penalty, which was quite odd. They scored on the power play.

“We then had a series of penalties in that second period where they then took advantage of either our tiredness or the man advantage. It was just a real poor show.

“In the third period, we changed our netminder. I feel for Brad (Windebank). He really was hung out to dry for almost all of the goals that were there. He didn't deserve that. We put young Nikolai Divall, a 16-year-old lad, in goal for his Dynamos debut and he was excellent, absolutely fantastic. So we had a 1-1 period there.

“We've got to put it into context. We went there with 12 skaters, which is quite unaccustomed for us. We had our top four defencemen out, either through injury, suspension or unavailability.

“If you took nine players out of any of the rosters in our division, they'd have a tough night in performing, especially when you consider we didn't also ice Aaron (Connolly), our captain, as well as Ruskin (Springer-Hughes), who was unavailable, so two of our prominent goal scorers as well were not there along with the four strong defenders. It was a hard night.”

Sunday was much better but the Mos were unable to hold onto any leads they built. The first period ended 1-1 and the second 2-2, with the Mos twice ahead. They went 4-2 up in the third through James Laming and Connolly but Solent got one back just after the Mos returned to full strength following a powerplay.

Solent then withdrew their netminder, rode their luck, and levelled at 4-4 with seconds remaining. It stayed that way in extra-time and then won on penalties.

“It was a real shame because the boys didn't deserve it,” Lennon said.

“They played fantastically well and I think the determination, the courage they showed against what they put on the night before was massively improved.

“We still have levels to go and of course, we were still missing four of our key defenders. We had players playing out of position, younger players stepping up and really giving a good solid account of themselves.

“Generally speaking, the attitude was great and the application was good. It would have been easy then for the players to drop their heads. They didn't in overtime. I thought we were the more dominant side. We had far more of the puck than they did and a couple of scoring chances that we just couldn't get over the line. The shootout is a lottery.

“It's frustrating because the guys deserved more out of that game, especially from the reaction of the night before, but we've got to move on.

“Slough and Streatham have had good starts this season and you would expect that based upon the squads that they have.”