PROMOTER Danny Ford admitted “it stings” to have witnessed Pirates’ nine-meeting unbeaten run come to an end at Berwick.

The Wimborne Road outfit were left to settle for one point in the SGB Championship after suffering a 46-44 loss at Shielfield Park Stadium.

Heat leaders Danny King (12), Rory Schlein (8) and Steve Worrall (8+2) were all in the points for the visitors but just three points combined from guests Jason Edwards and James Wright proved costly for patched-up Poole.

Ford said: “We were looking to come away with four points, to be honest. I felt we had enough, especially with the injuries Berwick have got as well.

“Obviously having to bring in guests again to cover for Benjamin Basso, who we just signed last week but caught COVID – there’s nothing you can do about that is there?

“Ben (Cook) is also still injured and couldn’t take his place in the team.

“It’s difficult when your guests only score three points between them but we know those guys gave it everything they could. I can’t fault them for that.Bournemouth Echo:

“Everyone rode their hearts out but we just came up a little bit short. It stings but we move on.”

Pirates led 20-16 after six heats against the Bandits but the hosts turned the screw in the midpoint of the meeting.

A key moment came when skipper King was excluded after a tapes offence in heat nine with Berwick picking up a 4-2 to put themselves in command.

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“We made it hard work for ourselves,” said Ford.

“We have done that a few times this year – we seem to really take our foot off the gas at a certain stage.

“We get complacent, we need to really drill into hat. I don’t know whether it’s just psychological that we take our foot off the gas but something needs to change.

“We need to know that once we’ve got these teams in that position we just press harder.”

Pirates make the trip to Newcastle in the Championship tomorrow.

(Pictures: Taylor Lanning)