OUR long unbeaten run came to an end on Sunday as we lost 4-2 at Whitley Warriors.

We all knew we couldn’t go on winning forever. We’ve had a fantastic run, nobody can take that away from us.

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I said at the beginning of the season that to have gone unbeaten this year would have been incredible. We always knew it was going to be tough this year.

We knew Whitley were going to be our toughest opponents, especially away. It was just one of those games.

We had the chances to win, but we didn’t take them.

When they’ve got a player like David Longstaff, who is probably one of the best British players to ever play the game, it’s going to be hard. He scored three of their goals, he’s a big plus for them.

It was good battle, though. We lost, but I enjoyed the game, it was a good test, it’s always hard going there. It’s a small ice pad. It doesn’t necessarily suit our game, but it was just one of those things.

We’re not going to beat ourselves up about it, we’ve got them again this Sunday, so it’s a perfect time to bounce back.

I wasn’t as impressed with Whitley as I thought I might be. They beat us, there is no getting away from that, full credit to them. But Whitley play a certain type of game, they try to intimidate you and rough you up and, to be honest, I don’t think they did.

We kept our heads. It was a physical game, we like that, there’s no argument in that. Without Longstaff we would probably have won that game, but that’s one of those things, teams have big players to win games and he is one of those players.

It’s good we’ve got them at home this weekend to try to get it out of our system straight away. At Whitley Bay their fans are right on top of you, it’s quite a hostile place to play. I think it will be a bit different this Sunday. We’re in front of our fans and our home ice, which is bigger.

It’s a big weekend with Telford Tigers away on Saturday, they are a good side, and then the Whitley game on Sunday.

It’s kind of a blessing in disguise really that we’ve been beaten. We’d kind of forgotten what it feels like. It’s the perfect time to dust ourselves down and regroup and try to push on again and go on another unbeaten streak.