Oxford City Stars slid to a 6-4 defeat in a bad-tempered South Division 1 game at home to Solent Devils.

It will be a contest remembered for all the wrong reasons with four players – Stars’ Darren Elliott and Josh Oliver plus Devils’ Steve Gosset and Mitch Murray – ejected in the final period.

Tempers began to flare in the second period, and referee Emilio Fusco quickly lost control, frustrating both sets of players and fans with regular and lengthy disruptions to deal with often trivial matters.

With Solent leading 5-1 going into the final period, Murray’s reaction to his second of the game proved the catalyst for a stormy finale.

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It ultimately descended into farce with multiple fights on and off the ice, and enormous delays as the referee struggled to deal with them.

Those fights saw Elliott, Oliver, Gosset and Murray given their marching orders.

A thunderbolt from Zsolt Masteleriu with 15 minutes to go gave Oxford hope, and a magnificent strike from the blue line by Joe Oliver with three minutes left set up an exciting finish.

However, a well-taken goal from Jake Florey in the last minute was all Stars had left in the tank.

Devils have become something of a bogey team for Oxford this season, beating them three times, including a 10-2 thumping at the start of the month.

It looked like history would repeat itself as the south coast side outplayed Stars in the opening 25 minutes.

Goals in the first period came from Andy Campbell, Murray, Andrew Magee, with Ben Lock and Gosset netting within 30 seconds of each other at the start of the second.

Josh Oliver opened Oxford’s account a couple of minutes later.

But it was at this point the game started to become fractured, as referee Fusco’s handling of one or two affrays inflamed tempers rather than cooling them.

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