COACH Gary Pearce has taken plenty of positives from Hull Ionians' 41-12 opening day defeat against Coventry at Brantingham Park.
The scoreline made it a chastening first outing in National League One, but it was by no means a disgrace and was a good team display against a Coventry side who will be vying for promotion.
Pearce said: "I thought we showed a lot of spirit and character.
"Obviously, it wasn't the result we wanted but we put in a performance which was what we were looking for.
"We wanted to see if we could play at this level and we showed we could.
"The scoreline flatters Coventry because we bombed six tries and in this league you have to show patience.
"The chances they created they took. That is something we will have to learn because it's different to last season."
Coventry scored on three minutes with a catch and drive driven to the line for Wright to score and Hodgson added the conversion.
Ionians produced 10 minutes of pressure, including Tom Rice breaching the line and Sam Wilson's mazy run that took him within inches of the line, but Coventry held firm.
A stolen line-out ball was moved smartly to Kohler who raced clear before supplying a pass to Davies, who scored under the posts for an easy conversion for Hodgson.
Hurrell sneaked in on the blind side for 19-0 after 22 minutes.
Ionians, led by recruits Williams, Freeman and Argyle, alongside homespun trio Wigham, Sanders and Makin, made inroads into the defensive line, allowing Thomas to put Danny Smith in to score Ionians' first points in National One.
Coventry soaked up the pressure and hit on the counter. Turn-over ball was moved down the blind side to give Wright his second try, converted by Hodgson, to make it 26-5 at half-time.
The opening 15 minutes of the second half saw Ionians supply more pressure but fail to score more points.
Coventry lifted the siege with a 40m clearing kick and were only prevented from adding to their tally by the illegal intervention of Smith who received a ten-minute break for his indiscretion.
Coventry received a penalty, goaled by Hodgson.
Two minutes later, Wright joined Smith in detention for foul play.
Being reduced to 14 men spurred Ionians to greater efforts, and a rolling maul resulted in Wigham's try. Chris Reakes tagged on the conversion for 29-12.
But from a line-out Maisey produced a perfect cross-field kick to Hurrell, who touched down unopposed, and Le Roux strolled over on full-time, goaled by Hodgson.
