Coach proud of his players despite agony
ROCHDALE Hornets head coach Alan Kilshaw insists he was extremely proud of his side despite their narrow 18-17 home defeat to Toronto Wolfpack on Friday.
Kilshaw’s side came agonisingly close to winning the game, and while they may have come up short, he was still happy with what he saw from his players.
“I’m immensely proud of the players for their efforts and how dominant they were,” he said.
“They had all been in work before the game but then knocked off at 5pm and came to the ground, so to put in an effort like that was brilliant and I’m so proud.
“I spoke to them before the game and said that their efforts would get them what they deserve, but that probably wasn’t true as they didn’t get what they deserved.
“We’ve set a standard now and we need to stick at it. We can’t be the nearly men against the big boys, we’ve got the level now and we need to make sure next week we’re up for it during the Easter period.
“We were a bit disappointed with a few decisions that went against us. We thought Lewis Palfrey got punched two or three times during a fracas but then he ended up in the sin bin, Toronto get a penalty and they score in the next set.
“Ultimately we had opportunities to win even if you take that decision away. As much as we can look at those calls and say it was an injustice, we let them back in the game and still could have overcome them.
“We could review these decisions to death, but they always say that they even themselves out over the course of the season. I’m yet to see that happen since I’ve been here, but hopefully it might happen this year.”