London Raiders’ player-coach Danny Marshall and a few of their senior players have ‘quit’ following discussions over his future – although the club have left the door open for his return.

The Raiders have lost nine consecutive games in all competitions and last Tuesday the club’s management made the recommendation Marshall sould step down from his coaching position to focus solely on playing.

An ‘unimpressed’ Marshall left the meeting to consider his future and after attempts by the club to contact him in the proceeding 48 hours, Marshall returned to Lee Valley on Thursday to hold discussions with the players.

The upshot of that meeting with the players became clear in the early hours of Friday morning when he text chief executive John Scott to confirm he, along with captain AJ Smith, import Jakub Klima and Perry Richardson, had all quit the Raiders.

All four remain contracted to the club, but Scott admits hockey contracts “might as well be written on rubber”.

In a statement on the club’s website, Scott said: “It was a reasonably lengthy discussion revolving around our recommendation that he step down from coaching duties to allow himself to focus more on playing and perhaps bring a fresh approach to the team.

“With that may come other player options since the team appeared to have had absolutely no success in attracting players to fill available roles.

“Low budgets can have that effect but there are some good low cost options out there still.

“The Raiders management obviously leave the door open to these players to return. At this moment it appears to be an exercise by those players close to Danny to force the management to take back their request for Danny to step down from coaching. Whether that is the case we will only learn if someone contacts us or answers our calls.

“Various attempts to contact players have been made, mostly unsuccessful, and we had hoped that this was something of a knee-jerk reaction from the players and hence why no announcement was made.

“It appears that their thoughts are still much the same, although we do not know what their ‘demands’ are so to speak.

“I would hope it is quite clear that the management, and myself in particular, have only ever acted in what we felt were the best interests of the club and the players. Do we always know what is best? Who knows? We are all learning.

“Quite obviously you do not invest the time, effort and sleepless nights we have, without picking up a penny for our troubles, and then try to harm the club.”

Smith is close friends with Marshall and brought Richardson to the Raiders, with the absent quartet forming the experienced backbone of the side.

Assistant coach Alan Blyth has stepped into the breach in the mean time, as efforts to reconcile with the quartet continue.

On the ice, the Raiders were beaten 8-1 by the Bracknell Hornets on Sunday, having lost 5-0 to Cardiff Devils in south Wales the night before.

The results leave them second bottom of the National Ice Hockey League South 1.