Oxford City Stars were unable to stop Wightlink Raiders marching on at the top of English National League South Division 1 as they slipped to a 5-1 home defeat.

Raiders’ visit had been much-anticipated, but the match failed to live up to expectation as it passed without any remarkable incident.

Stars were without Andrew Shurmer and James Francis-Barrie, while Wightlink, who were looking to extend their unbeaten run to 15 games, iced a full team.

There was little to choose between the two sides in the opening exchanges.

But Oxford’s inability to put the puck in the net would once again return to haunt them.

Wightlink scored first when they broke at pace, and the cross-ice pass was deftly deflected by Irishman Robbie Brown through the legs of Oxford netminder Jamie Thompson.

Stars then had an excellent opportunity to equalise, but were unable to get a stick on the puck to knock it into an open net.

Raiders’ Richard Bentham was then handed a minor penalty, giving Oxford a man advantage for two minutes.

But while they maintained possession, they were unable to fashion any clear-cut scoring opportunities.

And Wightlink doubled their lead before the end of the first period through Stuart Tait.

Raiders also scored twice in the second period, with Canadian Jason Gorrie notching a double.

The only other noteable incident saw Stars – who didn’t incur any match penalties – have an effort ruled out by the referee.

This time there was no debate the puck went into the net, but the goal was moved from its normal position.

It was unfortunate as it followed some excellent build-up play and would have earned Damian Matla, who had another accomplished game and is growing in the role, his first point in a Stars shirt.

In the final period, Brown made it 5-0 with his second goal, before Oxford’s man-of-the-match Josh Oliver shot the puck into the Wightlink net, after some good build-up play from Andy Cox.