That was because because Steve Black wasn't registered when he played last week when we did manage to beat Stockton. So he didn't play against Redcar with Darren Thomas on the wing.

So after that little lot losing to a nice fellah like Jamie Connolly was a positive pleasure.

We'll soon know whether bad luck does come in threes. If we turn up at Brinkburn tomorrow to watch the kids and find a 324ft high windmill [or even a a ghost ship] on the first team pitch we'll know the old adage really isn't true.

Not that bad luck had much to do with this defeat. We went into a three nil lead in the first minute thanks to a long range Davy Tighe penalty - then went behind when their juggernaut pack got a big push on and No 8 Richard Baker just managed to snake an arm out.

We got the measure of their pack and restricted them to two penalties with Davy Tighe adding another one for us on the stroke of half time to make it 13-6 at half time.

Redcar got into our 22 twice in the second half - mainly thanks to our mistakes - but never looked like scoring.

We huffed and puffed and the lads tried their hardest, but once again it was a case of bad decision making and passes thrown out without due care and attention.

Redcar did defend well with Paul Beal making a couple of try saving tackles. Allan Milne almost powered over and Stu Bennett had more than one attempt. Our best attacking weapon was out wide but all too often the player with ball in hand opted to go it alone or set up a new phase.

When we did try to spin it out the final passes were delivered in a panic giving the wingers little chance.

So all we had to show for a second half of domination was a 63rd minute Davy Tighe penalty from 35 metres after they had played the ball on the floor.

It really wasn't our day with the Stags going down by 35-25. They also had the legs out wide but, by all accounts, didn't use that option enough either.