Depleted Oxford City Stars were far from disgraced as they succumbed to a 4-1 defeat at English National League Southern Division winners Invicta in their opening play-off game.

Alan Green, Sam Broughton, Lukas Szabo, Ben Moody, Marlon Williams, Luke Plasted and Chris Eames were all out with flu, while Dave Carr and Aidy Haigh were carrying injuries.

By contrast, Invicta who finished the league pro- gramme 14 points ahead of Oxford, were at full strength.

Within two minutes of the start, two Invicta players were serving penalties, but Stars were unable to make their powerplays count.

Despite being under pressure, Oxford were playing well and it took Invicta 12 minutes before they opened the scoring, Andy Smith netting with an assist from Jordy Black.

Stars went further behind 30 seconds from the end of the period, with Kevin Lace on target following assists by Alex Shan and Anthony Leone.

Oxford came out early for the second period, but after a minute's play Black made it 3-0 to Invicta, with assists from Peter Korff and Peter Carey.

Stars kept battling and Invicta continued to concede penalties.

But despite this, Invicta scored again through Carey with an assist from Black.

Oxford's Patrick Knightley was then taken out by Ryan Giles, who picked up a 12-minute penalty.

However, Oxford were still unable to make the powerplay count as Invicta netminder Joe Dollin pulled off some fine saves.

Stars laid seige to the Invicta goal in the third period, prompting the home coach to call time out after just seven minutes.

But it made little difference, as two minutes later, Oxford captain Darren Elliott broke their duck following an assist from Dean Francis.

The return match between the two sides is at Oxford Ice Rink on Sunday.