Kilshaw up for the Cup

ALAN Kilshaw has insisted that his Rochdale Hornets side will be taking the Challenge Cup very seriously this season.

The Hornets face an away trip to York City Knights on Sunday in the fourth round and will be hoping to turn their fortunes around against a side who have won their last four Challenge Cup ties against Kilshaw’s men.

“We’ll be picking the strongest side available,” Kilshaw said, “We want to be doing well in the Challenge Cup. It’s a competition with rich history; it’s exciting and it’s not a distraction for us at all. We’ll review how we went against Oldham and who’s injured.”

On the opposition, Kilshaw said: “York will be ready and

‘York will be coming out firing for us’

they’ll be coming out firing for us.

“They are improving every week and I see they got their win this week. We need a good week to focus more on ourselves.

“We had a good week last week so it doesn’t mean we’re having good weeks and not converting them from training. It’ll come and we know how tough it is next week and we need to be prepared for the challenge.”

Kilshaw is looking to kicker Lewis Palfrey to bounce back after his inconsistent kicking display in last Sunday’s draw at home to Oldham: “He’ll be beating himself up in there. Those free-kicks weren’t the reason why we lost the game. He’ll bounce back next week.”

The game will be played on Sunday 19th March at Bootham Crescent, York, and will kick-off at 3pm.