Hornets braced
HORNETS are back on the road following back-to-back home games, as they visit Dewsbury Rams on Sunday afternoon.
After a lengthy spell away from the Crown Oil Arena they returned with a hard fought victory over Bradford Bulls, picking up the two points with a 28-14 triumph.
That made it a league double over their opponents, something most Hornets fans wouldn’t have witnessed in their lifetime, and was also a vital two points in their fight for a top-eight finish.
They had a great chance to make it two wins from two when they welcomed Batley Bulldogs, and came agonisingly close before a late try sealed a 24-14 victory for the visitors.
It was a tough loss to take for Alan Kilshaw as he thought his men deserved something from the game.
“In the last two weeks our defence has been good and it was good again when we played Batley,” he said.
“There were only three times when we conceded even though they were on our line a lot, so it shows that we defended well.
“Batley are a good side and their budget dwarves ours. They were in the top four last year and are probably in a false position at the moment, as on paper they’re still a top four side.
“We got beat by 10 points but that did blow out a bit at the end and we gifted them a penalty on the hooter, so we’ll take the positives from it.
“It could have been different as we lost Jono Smith and he had looked dangerous. It would have been an impact if he could play all game but we won’t make an excuse, we were beaten by a smarter side.”
This week’s game against Dewsbury will be the first time the two clubs have met since the opening round of the season, when Rochdale posted a dominant 46-0 victory.
It was a win which sent them top of the table for the first two rounds of the season, and was arguably their most complete performance of the campaign.
Hornets will be hoping for a repeat of that result and performance this time out, however the Rams have improved since the appointment of Neil Kelly.
They have won three of their last six games, including back-to-back wins over Oldham and Toulouse Olympique in the space of four days.
Those results have seen them climb above Oldham to tenth place, outside the bottom two, and on 10 points they sit just one point behind Rochdale going into this clash.
“We know we have some big games to come with Dewsbury and Swinton next, and they will be two really difficult games and will be dogfights,” he said.
“We’ll ramp up this week as Dewsbury are on the back of some form, and it was a good win for them against Toulouse, especially after backing up from Wednesday.
“I think they’re picking the games a bit and they’ll have pinpointed our game as one they think they can win.
“They’re only a couple of points behind us now and we gave them a touch up in round one so that will be in their thoughts.
“We’ll just focus on ourselves though and take the positives from recent performances along with fixing
‘We know we have some big games to come and they will be dogfights’
up the things we can improve on.”
Kilshaw will be hoping Chris Riley, Miles Greenwood and Lewis Palfrey will be available, as well as Jono Smith and Ben Moores being fit following knocks against Batley.