HERBIE STUPPLE is hoping Saturday’s defeat to Hull Ionians in horrendous conditions at Brickfields was just a ‘small hiccup’ for Plymouth Albion.

Albion went into the match on the back of five consecutive wins, but they came unstuck in the mud and torrential rain and lost 17-7.

The defeat was Stupple’s first since taking over the Albion captaincy in the absence of Jake Murphy.

“It was just one of those games that did not go our way,” said Stupple. “If we had managed the first half better the outcome would not have been what it was.”

Albion dominated possession and territory first half but could not score, whereas Hull scored on the three occasions they got into Plymouth’s half.

“We went in at half-time thinking how strange it was that we didn’t get scores on the board and how we had so much ball but three times they got down in our 22 and scored,” said Stupple.

“It is annoying, but there were some good things from the game. Scrum-wise was awesome, we even won a couple against the head, so it was not all gloom.

“It was not a good loss, but we will pick ourselves up for Fylde away next week.”

He added: “We want to try and win all of our home games, but it absolutely hammered down and a few decisions did not go our way.

“I think it is something we will learn from.

“When the weather does change, we have to adapt to it and play the conditions a lot better.

“It’s annoying, but, like I said, we’ll pick ourselves up. We have to just push on and not dwell on it too much.  We still weren’t bad out there.

“I just want to see this as a small hiccup and we’ll go on again. The goal is to try and win away this coming week at Fylde.

“We did well against Fylde down here and we just have to take the same mentality up there.”