Raiders stroll past basement boys

ISLE OF WRIGHT, UK – In front of a surprisingly large crowd, the Wightlink Raiders cruised to a 12-1 victory over bottom of the table Peterborough Islanders. Although the result was never in doubt this was an entertaining encounter, the home team served up a quality performance whilst the Islanders who were completely outclassed never let their heads drop and played the game hard and in good spirit for the full sixty minutes.
 
This game was a prime example of the gulf in class between teams in the ENL1 South. Wightlink currently sit in mid table but were in a different class from the struggling Islanders. Mismatches such as this do nothing to promote the league as a spectator sport. However it was only two seasons ago that the Peterborough Islanders represented the best of the ENL South at Coventry in the ENL championship game. The team seem to have fallen a long way from that day but the gutsy performance seen in this game would indicate that the Islander’s will battle to the end to save their league status.
 
Alex Murray gave the Raiders an early lead after 1:48 and the only surprise was that it took the Raiders almost 9 minutes to add to their tally but once Danny Hughes had added the second, goals followed at regular intervals. John Sarno, Danny Hughes, again, and Dan Scott scoring before the first period break. The second period continued in the same vein. A rare strike from Luke Reynolds was followed by scores from Alex Murray, John Sarno and Jeremy Cornish. The main talking point from the middle period was a good goal from Jeremy Cornish being disallowed by referee Rene Ross who didn’t appear to notice the puck hitting the back of the net and waved play on. Happily this decision had no bearing on the result of the match but it was very odd decision indeed and as Rene was the sole official for this match, under the circumstances he officiated pretty well.
 
The Raiders seemed to take their foot off the gas in the third and spared the tiring Islanders, who had travelled to the island with only ten skaters, too much further punishment. James Udell and Jeremy Cornish scored for the Raiders before Worthington Evans got the Islanders on the board. Stuart Tait then completed the rout.
 
Man of the match for the visitors was netminder Ryan Bainborough who faced 73 shots on the night, Peterborough managed only 16 on Matt Colclough in the home goal. Andy Robinson was given the award for the Raiders.
   
Contact the author Dave.Logan@Prohockeynews.com