THE first thing I should stress is that we are a decent team, despite the disappointing loss in our first home league match against Redcar.

We have proved that across the season so far and had enjoyed a good margin of victory against the Somerset Rebels only a week before.

Credit to the visitors. Their heat leaders all rode consistently well and they caught us out. We have to ensure that we regroup and ensure we don't slip up again as we face Newcastle this Sunday afternoon.

For me the two young reserves provided the positives. Alex Davies was coming back from injury and then took an almighty hit in his first ride in heat two.

That seemed to knock back his confidence. He was very down in the pits and it had an impact on his second and third programmed rides.

I went and had a word with him and pointed out that crashes happen in speedway – it's inevitable.

I was very pleased with him after that because he went out in heat 12 when we were paired together and he stormed away at the front with me tucked behind. We got a 5-1 heat win that brought us back into the match on equal terms with Redcar at that stage. He showed a lot of character to respond like that.

Meanwhile Todd Kurtz was picking up vital third places after his initial victory in heat two. You don't want a reserve running last in tight matches and he was consistent in picking up points. In fact Todd was on his way to a second heat victory at one point when a race got stopped.

Both Alex and Todd are only 17 and at the very beginning of promising careers.

So let's look forward to it being onward and upward for these two lads and for the team as a whole.