SIMON SMITH: Good to end our bad run against Brid

For whatever reason, Scarborough have struggled against Bridlington in recent years, but we produced another very good performance on Saturday and fully deserved to win the game.

Bridlington always come to try and intimidate opposition teams and Saturday was no different.

There is no quarter given with them whenever they take to the field and you have to be on your mettle to handle their approach.

As a club, there’s maybe an expectation on players and coaches to set their stall out in this manner as that is how the club have always played their rugby.

We knew they’d come at us hard on Saturday and it was incredibly important for us not to take the bait, to keep our composure and play our own game - while fronting up and holding our own.

One of the most pleasing things for me was the fact they didn’t score a single try - which is testament to a fantastic defensive performance from the entire team.

Yes, they had their captain Jamie Martin sent off early on and then suffered a couple of injuries later on, but I thought we played well and scored some fantastic tries.

Manning Smith’s try in particular was a great effort just after half-time, showing great anticipation then awareness and skill to race clear.

I have known their coach Shaun Fearn a long, long time - we played together for many years at Bridlington, and I had a good chat with him afterwards.

He didn’t have any complaints with the result or with his captain being sent off.

You just can’t get away with throwing punches in the modern game.

Maybe in my day you’d sometimes just get a warning from the referee, but in the modern game there is no way you can get away with doing that on a rugby pitch.