Wightlink Raiders are five points clear at the top of the South Division

Wightlink Raiders coach Jeremy Cornish says he wants the Raiders to become a dominant force in English ice hockey.

The Raiders, who are currently top of the English National Ice Hockey League South Division, have only lost three of their first 19 games.

"Our major goal is definitely a top three finish and the play-off finals.

"So we'll see what happens, but we want to be stable so we can become a dominant force at this level," Cornish told BBC Radio Solent.

The Raiders, who are based in Ryde on the Isle of Wight, finished sixth in the South division last season and Cornish admits the team have come a long way since he joined the club over a year ago.

"We're the only team on the island and we used to be a winning team. But the Raiders went through ten years of tough times so have lost a lot of support.

"But it's a big improvement on last year. We finished sixth and reached the play-offs which gave us a good foundation for this year to get started again.

"It gave us a chance to recruit some new players so this year we've got some good youngsters mixed in with some good older players too. The ages of players in our team ranges from 18-35." said Cornish.

The average attendance for a Raiders home game is 700 and the Canadian hopes that now they are back to winning ways they can attract larger crowds to home games.

"Now we are winning we should start to get more people out. It's a pretty fast sport so a lot of people get hooked right away. If people start bringing new people to the game it wont be long before they are hooked."

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