It was a narrow 1-0 defeat for Invicta Dynamos in the first leg of the cup, but all is to play for on Sunday in Gillingham.

Invicta travelled without the services of captain Nicky Lewis and first line forward Callum Fowler for the trip to Streatham.

With a strong following of travelling supporters the Kent side started brightly and just after two minutes into the game Conor Redmond cut a pass across the goalmouth of netminder Sanderson’s zone only to see Bailey Wootton screw his shot wide. A few minutes later Joe Johnston registered the first dangerous Streatham shot, which Damien King tipped over his bar.

Conor Redmond could have opened the scoring after ten minutes, Ondrej Zosiak seeing a shot parried by Sanderson but as Redmond crept in smelling a goal, he got nudged away by Ryan Giles. Barely a minute later a double save by Sanderson kept Eriks Ozollapa and Steve Osman at bay.

With fifteen minutes on the clock, Arran Strawson had a shot saved but the puck fell to Kamil Kinkor who had a one-on-one with Damien King – the Invicta netminder coming out on top to keep the scoreline scoreless. Eriks Ozollapa almost made Streatham pay for that miss when he rattled Sanderson’s goal frame on 15:50 but both teams had to settle for a goalless first period.

Joe Allen had the first opportunity in the second period which was easily gathered by King. Nicky Chinn robbed Harrison Lillis on 22:15 and fed Kinkor, who was frustrated by King again. It wasn’t all Streatham early on, Ozollapa found Bailey Wootton in space who failed to convert past Sanderson.

Chris Wiggins was determined to sit more time in the penalty box during the second period, being penalised for three separate minor incidents, with the second and third spaced in between 14 seconds.

It was on his last penalty where the deadlock was broken with a shorthanded goal for Streatham on 37:52 when Callum Best skated towards King’s left side and squared for Steven Fisher to put the home side 1-nil to the good before the end of the period.

The first ten minutes of the last period did not produce a lot of open opportunities for both teams, but Invicta did have to see out a 3 on 5 when both Ozollapa and Lillis got minor penalties – and remarkably Invicta almost nicked a goal when Elliott Dewey broke free.

Damien King was again called into action with 7 minutes remaining, a double save from a Madren-Batten drive and then the follow-up from Wood. Invicta had a powerplay advantage for the last minute and a half of the game when Jack Tarczycki slashed at Ozollapa – but like previous powerplays, Invicta could not get an equalising goal.

It was no surprise to see both netminders pick-up the man of the match awards, with both expected to be busy for the second leg too.

Pictures supplied by Nicola Allen.