Invicta Dynamos’ coach admitted he couldn’t face his players after a game to forget on Saturday - but they responded with a super Sunday.

Karl Lennon watched his side lose 11-1 to NIHL South Division 1 league leaders Slough Jets before they returned to Gillingham and righted some wrongs with a 3-2 victory against title-chasing Streatham Redhawks.

It was a fine way to end the weekend, but Lennon couldn’t erase the memory of the game 24 hours earlier.

He said: “The feeling was a lot better on the Sunday than the Saturday. The boys were very happy with themselves.

“I said to them on Sunday after the game, ‘Don’t be too happy - you failed miserably on Saturday night’.

“We can’t be this roller coaster. We have to be more centred, somewhere in the middle of where we were on the weekend. We might have got two results.

“The biggest frustration with this group is that they are so capable and they don’t realise how capable they are a lot of the time. They give up on themselves, or each other, at certain points in the game, like they did on Saturday. But they don’t need to.

“If they just dig in and believe, which I do in them, then they’ll have good results more regularly.

“It was an incredibly frustrating weekend as a coach but better to end it the way we did than end it the way we played on Saturday.”

The Mos are rarely on the end of such scorelines as they were in Slough.

“I was extremely unhappy with the performance,” Lennon said. “We have three values as a team that we try to uphold together, which is respect, commitment and passion. I think in various different ways, we were devoid of all three of those things.

“As good as they were, we were equally as bad in that measure.

“We were making poor decisions. We were lethargic in spaces. We didn’t execute at all on what our intention was and what we prepared for during the week.

“We knew what we were walking into. They’re a very good side and they play with a lot of pace and it was just anything that could go wrong went wrong.

“Even when things went right, even when we got given a five-minute major penalty on them to then have a power play, it still went wrong.

“We couldn’t get any bit of joy throughout the course of the night. I was obviously very unhappy with that. I said at one point to the boys, I could have drawn Mickey Mouse on the tactics board and it wouldn’t have made a blind bit of difference.

“I couldn’t even bring myself to speak to the team after the game. I had to walk away because I was just so upset and disappointed with them.

“It’s my worst scoreline as a coach. In my whole time [at Invicta] I’ve had two defeats with a swing of 10 goals and that was one of them.

“One of them was the reason behind trying to get the job in the first place. We had a devastating loss in the cup to Streatham. I came home and spoke to my wife afterwards and said, ‘I want to help and I need to find a way to do that’.

“That failure served as a positive for the future [after taking over as head coach] and that was the message for me.”

The Mos returned home on Sunday to dish out a defeat to Streatham which damaged their chances of retaining the title.

James Laming scored in the first period to equalise. Mads Thune put the Mos ahead but the Redhawks levelled it up, captain Aaron Connolly’s strike in the third period proving to be the winner.

Lennon said: “Saturday was horrendous and I was upset but going into Sunday’s game I didn’t need to say very much.

“The players owned that failure and had to get better. I don’t think we were great on Sunday, if I’m honest, but certain players played very well and that helped us.”

The Dynamos host Swindon Wildcats 2 on Saturday (5.45pm) in their final home league game of the regular season before heading off to play Oxford City Stars on Sunday - a team they’ve a 100 per cent record against this season.

Lennon said: “We have a difficult opponent on Saturday. Swindon have turned up to many bigger teams this year and done some damage.

“Their team is young and energetic and we have to be prepared.

“They've joined the division and put in a really solid account of themselves. They can be proud of that.

“Oxford haven't been the team that they've been in the past but Oxford is never an easy place to go and play a game of hockey.

“For us, it's now about building on the momentum that we had created on Sunday night and make sure that we enter the play-offs in good shape because we have to have form.

“We have to have our players getting back to scoring form. We have to have our players putting in solid defensive performance. This weekend will be really important.”