AJ Smith put Raiders ahead at the Isle of Wight on Saturday

Goalscorer Smith prepares for practice

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Romford Raiders will be looking to get Saturday’s ENL Division One defeat at Isle of Wight out of their system at practice tonight ahead of three big games in four days.

AJ Smith’s shorthanded goal put Romford ahead inside 90 seconds on the small rink at Ryde, but Dominic Hopkins equalised with a powerplay goal and Steve Gosset and Richard Facey, with another powerplay goal, made it 3-1 at the break.

Wight went further ahead with the only goal of the middle session through Canadian import Joe Rand, before Tyrone Miller replied.

But Facey sealed a 5-2 win for the hosts with an empty-net goal, after Romford withdrew goalie Michael Gray for an extra attacker.

Goalscorer Smith said: “Saturday was very disappointing for all the lads. We didn’t play badly in my opinion, but we weren’t at the top of our game either.

“Isle of Wight deserved to beat us on the day, but we all spoke about what went wrong in the changing rooms after.

“We know what we need to work on at training on Tuesday, before a huge run of three games in four days against Chelmsford, Isle of Wight and Invicta.”

Raiders host Chelmsford on Thursday in the second leg of their Essex Cup clash, looking to overturn a 5-2 deficit from the first leg and add another piece of silverware to the trophy cabinet.

Chieftains closed the gap at the top of the table to two points with a 7-2 win over Cardiff on Saturday, but missed the chance to take over at the summit as they lost their game in hand at Invicta.

Smith added: “Luckily for us, Invicta did us a huge favour by beating Chelmsford on Sunday to keep us at the top.

“I went to Invicta to watch the game and it was a close one, but Invicta deserved the win. They looked the best I’ve seen them all year and I think we will be in for a very tough game on Sunday.”

Raiders return to the Isle of Wight for the second leg of their Raiders Challenge, following a 4-4 draw at Rom Valley Way, on Saturday.

And they could have completed a treble by the time they go back to their league title bid with that home game against Invicta on Sunday (5.15pm).