Davies, who played for Leeds last season having spent 18 months out of the game due to the Covid pandemic, returned to Elland Road on Sunday for the first time in a competitive fixture, with his Seahawks team well beaten 4-1 by the NIHL National leaders.

Afterwards, he admitted the Seahawks – who had gone into the fixture buoyed by their first home win of the season the previous evening – had some way to close the gap on their Yorkshire rivals.

"Yeah, you can see why they are flying at the top of thet able at the minute,” admitted Davies, whose team remain bottom of the standings despite their overdue 6-3 home ice defeat against Bees IHC on Saturday. “They are a team that are a step above us at the minute.

PRESSURE MOMENT: Leeds Knights' Carter Hamill (left) and Oli Endicott pile pressure on the Hull Seahawks net during Sunday night's NIHL National clash at Elland Road Ice Arena. Picture courtesy of Oliver Portamento

"They’ve got two extremely good lines of forwards that are very dangerous, they are big and strong too and they play hard – they’ve got everything in those two lines that you need to be successful.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to be honest and say they are a better team than us right now - without our imports we can’t compete with that Leeds team, that’s just a fact.

"The start of the game in Leeds was tough, they were always going to come hard. They didn’t play well in Swindon by all accounts, although they won, so I knew they were going to come hard and I told the boys to be aware of that and be ready to take it, but we struggled early on and we just couldn’t match it.

“But we did grow into the game and we did a job and defensively we were good and Jordan (McLaughlin, Hull netminder) was unbelievable and he’s been class all season for us.

NOT THIS TIME: Hull Seahawks' netminder Jordan McLaughlin repels another Leeds Knights attack, eventually turning away 41 of the 45 shots on his net during Sunday night's NIHL National clash at Elland Road Ice Arena. Picture courtesy of Oliver Portamento

“We just didn’t have the other side to our game, we couldn’t create the clear openings, we couldn’t find good shots.

“I think we had 20 shots in total – that’s not enough, it’s not enough to win you games.”

While there was disappointment at slipping to a 17th defeat at Elland Road in the 19 games played so far, Davies admitted the previous evening on home ice had been one to behold.

The most satisfying aspect of the win over second-bottom Bees – who still have six-point cushion over the Seahawks – was Hull’s ability to rack up six goals on the night, particularly after being shutout in the two previous home games by Bristol Pitbulls and Swindon Wildcats.

BUILDING BLOCKS: Hull Seahawks' player-coach Matty Davies knows there is a long way to go for his team in order to be challenging the likes of Leeds Knights. Picture courtesy of Hull Seahawks/Tony King

Another satisfying aspect of the victory was the fact Hull came back from trailing 2-0 a the first intermission.

Two goals from defenceman Declan Balmer and another second period strike from James Archer edged the hosts ahead going into the final 20 and although the Bees levelled, the Seahawks held their nerve and closed out the game through two goals in four minutes from Bobby Streetly and Nathan Salem, before the returning defenceman doubled his tally with an empty net strike inside the last two minutes.

"More than anything I was just happy for the fans and the lads that they finally got that home win that we really needed and it was class,” added Davies.

"It was a good room to be in on Saturday night. It’s always great when you win, especially at home as well, the fans hadn’t had that yet.

“It’s been coming. We’ve been in games, but we were shut out twice at home recently and we were nearly there, nearly there but we’d not scored at the right times and then we managed to stay on top on Saturday and they did a great job.”

Hull Seahawks coach Matty Davies on why leaders Leeds Knights can be successful in NIHL National