Telford Tigers "failed to turn up" for the first period in Hull Seahawks defeat

But Tigers endured a nightmare start to the first period and found themselves three goals down inside 10 minutes.

Bobby Chamberlain opened the scoring and was closely followed by a goal from Owen Sobchak. The just 30 seconds after Tigers conceded the second goal, Hull had a third goal through Jordan Stallard.

That prompted Watkins called a timeout to stem the flow of goals. However, it was a temporary reprieve as Patrick Brown was penalised for hooking allowing Hull’s power play unit to score through Jonny Corneil.

A demoralising period ended with Tigers four goals behind and a mountain to climb.Within the first minute of the second period Tigers finally got on the scoreboard. David Thomson scored with low shot. But Hull hit straight back with a goal from Emil Svec to restore their four-goal lead.

Brynley Capps was the hero in the Solway game, getting the winner in the penalty shootout and he got the Tigers’ second goal with a cool finish from the slot.

Just 20 seconds into the third period Tigers had a third. Caelan McPhee scored with a shot from a tight angle. Tigers put pressure on the Hull goal in the final 10 minutes of the game but the damage had been done in the first period as Tigers fell to a disappointing 5-3 defeat.

After the game Watkins said: “We didn’t turn up for the first period! It’s as simple as that and it cost us the game and the players have to take responsibility for that.

"We didn’t compete, made too many mistakes and got punished.During the second and third periods it was a totally different story. We played with some jump, some presence, moved our feet and made some plays but gave ourselves too much to do.

“We need all of the team playing well every night home and away. Our performances on the road haven’t been good enough and that’s up to me to rectify that.”