COACH Kevin Parrish has called on the Invicta Dynamos to improve the defensive aspects of their game.

The Mos suffered a brace of heavy defeats against English Premier League side Romford Raiders last weekend, and while Parrish was able to praise the commitment of his players, he said they must tighten up.

The first game of the EPIHL (English Premier Ice Hockey League) Cup double header took place in Romford on Saturday and ended in a 9-4 defeat for the Dynamos.

The Raiders raced into a five-goal lead before the visitors registered their first goal through Elliott Andrews.

The home side then added a sixth before Ken Forshee made it 6-2.

Peter Korff and Martin Rider also got on the scoresheet for the Dynamos before Romford secured the win.

On Sunday, the Dynamos suffered a heavy 13-2 defeat at the Gillingham Ice Bowl. AJ Smith and Stuart Low got the home side’s goals.

Parrish said: "We’ve got enough good forwards to score a lot of goals, so we need to keep it tighter in defence.

"There are certain times we are over committed to the puck and it’s leaving the defencemen short-handed.

"But we’ve got a good enough D back there, and hopefully we will sort it."

Parrish added: "It just didn’t happen for us last weekend. I can take the positives in terms of great commitment and work rate but there is such a gulf now between our league and the EPL teams, you expect things like that.

"Romford played pretty well, and outclassed us."

The Mos return to ENIHL (English National Ice Hockey League) action with a trip to Basingstoke Buffalo on Saturday before returning to the Gillingham Ice Bowl to face Slough Hawks the following day.

Parrish added: "It’s going to be tough in Basingstoke, it always is but at least we haven’t had a weekend off, we’ve kept skating and hopefully we’ll be able to get a bit of confidence back."

Elliott Andrews is missing on Saturday, while Jamie Smith is still injured. Parrish is also hoping to have Kev Lake and Damien Welch available.