Hull Seahawks boss shoulders blame for heavy defeat while Sheffield Steeldogs react to derby defeat

The Seahawks had gone into the clash in Wiltshire as league leaders but were anything but afterwards following a performance head coach Davies branded as “unacceptable”.

The hosts got ahead with a sixth-minute shorthanded strike from Canadian forward Sean Richards and never looked back, building a 3-0 lead after 10 minutes with further strikes from Richards and Owen Griffiths.

By the time the second period had ended, the Wildcats were 7-0 up, Richards completing his hat-trick while Matt Vermaeten (2) and Reed Sayers also got on the scoresheet, with Seahawks’ league-leading goalie Aleksanteri Heiskanen replaced by back-up Dominic Smith after the sixth goal.

Davies is demanding a reaction from his players when they host Bristol Pitbulls on Sunday, but acknowledged his own role in the defeat.

“That was about as bad as it gets,” said Davies. “I would say that this one would be on me.

“I've clearly not got the players ready to come here and play in the intensity and magnitude of what the game was, so I'm going to take the blame for that.

“That was not good enough, not good enough in all departments. I'm sorry to the fans that came here tonight. We had a lot that came and travelled and I'm embarrassed that we've put that out there.

“I’m taking nothing away from Swindon - they're a very, very good team and they won the league for a reason.

“That's the level, that's the standard that we're all trying to strive to and tonight we've realised that we're a step off and we've got a lot of work to do to get to that level.

“There's a lot of learning and reflecting to do.”

Elsewhere, Sheffield Steeldogs bounced back from Thursday night’s 4-1 defeat at Leeds Knights with a 6-2 win at rock-bottom Bristol Pitbulls.

The teams were tied at 1-1 after Jonathan Kirk and Bristol’s Jake Bircknell exchanged goals but it was in the second period where the visitors took control.

Out-shooting their hosts 23-4, they built a 4-2 lead through second period strikes from Walker Sommer, Dante Salituro and Jonathan Phillips.

Tanner Butler offered brief hope for Bristol when making it 4-2 on the power play at 46.09, but Salituro completed his hat-trick for a welcome road win for Slava Koulikov’s team before they headed home to prepare for the visit of leaders Milton Keynes Lightning on Sunday.

Leeds built on their derby win in front of an 1,800-plus crowd at Elland Road on Thursday night by extending their winning streak to five games with a 5-2 win at Solway.

The Knights had beaten their Scottish rivals 5-0 on home ice a week earlier but were given a tougher examination north of the border.

Edgars Vengis and Innes Gallacher - back from an eight-month injury layoff the previous night against Sheffield - gave Leeds a 2-1 first period lead, one they built on with a second-period strike from Owen Sobchak.

Matt Bissonnette made it 4-1 at 44.01 before Scott Henderson replied four minutes later.

Gallacher capped an impressive two days by making the points safe with a last-minute empty-net strike.