PLYMOUTH Albion’s director of rugby Graham Dawe could not hide his disappointment after his team’s five-game winning run came to an end in front of their own fans at Brickfields on Saturday.

Albion were beaten 17-7 by Hull Ionians in terrible conditions at Brickfields.

The home team had gone into the game on a high after beating Hartpury College and Rosslyn Park away in their previous two National One matches.

“It is always tough to lose at home in front of your own supporters, especially when the team had worked so hard away from home the last couple of weeks,” said Dawe.

“You want to make your home ground a real fortress to any opposing team.”

Saturday’s match was spoilt by the weather conditions, which made any free-flowing rugby almost impossible.

Albion dominated territory, but Hull out-scored them three tries to one to complete the double over Dawe’s side.

“It was certainly a very competitive game,” said Dawe. “And we played some good stuff.

“We certainly had more ball and field position than we had last weekend (at Rosslyn Park) and we were very unfortunate not to score more tries and points.

“First half we had a lot of possession and field position but we could not cross.

“That comes down to having control and making good decisions in the final third. Everyone has to buy into that. Sometimes you have to lose to learn some of these lessons.

“But Hull were outstanding in the contact area, their game-management was very good from their 10 and they squeezed over the line three times and deserved it.”

He added: “There were probably two tries that were very tight calls from the officials. They gave the benefit to the attacking side, which is fair enough.

“Hull being the away side came down with a fairly stringent game-plan and it worked out for them, as it often does for the away side, like we have seen in the last couple of weeks.

“Our team were very confident going into the game that they could match Hull physically and set-piece wise and to a certain extent we did that. We played some good stuff.

“We could be accused of playing too much sometimes – it is a tight balancing act.”

Albion will be hoping to bounce back next weekend when they make the long trip to Fylde.