MATTY DAVIES declared himself proud of his Hull Seahawks team after seeing his hopes of lifting a first piece of silverware come crashing down in Coventry at the weekend.

With just under five minutes remaining of Sunday’s NIHL National play-off final, the Seahawks were 3-2 ahead against Yorkshire rivals Leeds Knights.

But the Knights staged a remarkable recovery, scoring twice in 67 seconds to seize the momentum, going on to score an empty-netter to ensure a 5-3 victory and clinch their second play-off crown in four years.

It was a crushing blow to head coach Davies, his players and the hundreds of Seahawks fans who had made the trip down for the Final Four Weekend at the SkyDome Arena.

But, despite the intense frustration at not quite getting over the line, it still ranks as the franchise’s best-ever campaign since it was formed back in the Spring of 2022.

This season saw them achieve their highest-ever regular season finish when they came runners-up to league champions Swindon Wildcats, while also posting their highest-ever points total.

And Davies’ long-time ambition of making it out of the group phase of the play-offs for the first-ever time and reaching the semi-finals was also achieved.

Having edged out Swindon in the last four 2-1, Davies was confident his team could pull one more win out of the bag to seal what would go down as a near-perfect campaign.

TOUGH TO TAKE: Hull Seahawks' head coach Matty Davies. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe

placeholder image — TOUGH TO TAKE: Hull Seahawks' head coach Matty Davies. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe

But Leeds’ stunning late rally put paid to those plans and leaves Davies and his team going back to the drawing board to try again in 2026-27.

Having had time to collect his thoughts, Davies took to the club’s social media channels on Monday to issue a heartfelt thank you to his players, staff and fans, while also apologising for not sealing their first-ever silverware.

“From my side I do think it is important that I apologise to the fans because it is a tough one to take,” said Davies.

“It’s different when you just lose the game, you can sort of accept it a little bit easier and I’m not somebody who accepts losing great - I’m a pretty sore loser.

SWEET MEMORIES: Leeds Knights captain Kieran Brown lifts the NIHL National play-off trophy at the SkyDome Arena in Coventry on Sunday night after a late comeback saw them beat Yorkshire rivals Hull Seahawks 5-3. Picture: Miles Tidman/Knights Media.

“But, just in the way that the game was with five minutes left and we had - from my point of view - total control of the game. We’ve played with a lead this year really well and just a couple of individual switch-offs and Leeds capitalised on that.

“And they got one and then it sort of got away from the plan and the plan was there and it sort of went out of the window

“And for me I just want to thank the players for all their hard work, I’m really proud of every one of them and they dug in all year for me but also this weekend and this hurts and it’s obviously going to hurt them and it’s not an easy one to take at all.

"It’s going to sting for a while.

“We’ve grown a lot in four years. It doesn’t make this easier. We were there and we wanted to win, obviously.

“So we’ve got to just accept that and hopefully we remember that feeling and we move on quickly.”