Hornets urged to keep up standard
ROCHDALE Hornets head coach Alan Kilshaw is urging his players to maintain the standard they set against Toronto Wolfpack for the rest of the season.
It’s set to be a busy Easter period for Hornets, as the team were in action on Good Friday against Sheffield Eagles, and up next they take on Featherstone Rovers on Easter Monday.
Hornets headed into those games on the back of a narrow 18-17 defeat to Toronto last week. The Canadian outfit are the Championship favourites, with a huge backing and a squad littered with Super League and NRL experience.
Despite that, Hornets pushed them all the way and were unlucky to come out on the wrong end of an 18-17 score line, due to a late controversial penalty.
They had led 16-6, thanks to tries from Earl Hurst, Gary Middlehurst and Rob Massam, before Morgan Smith edged the nearly men against these big boys, and not perform consistently,” he said.
“We will feel the Toronto loss, but we need to make sure we get up for our upcoming games. We’ve got a good turnaround, the lads had the weekend off and came in Tuesday.
“Last year we did well against the big sides and then we let ourselves down in games you’d say we could win or that we were favourites to win.”
Hornets had already made the trip to Yorkshire to face Sheffield on Friday as the Observer went to press, but ahead of the game, Kilshaw was expecting a difficult match.
“It’s not going to be easy; they have had an indifferent start but are starting to put some performances together,” he said.
“It’s not a ‘gimmie’ because we have played well against Toronto and they haven’t won a game yet; we’ve got to go there with the right attitude and Published by MEN Media, Mitchell Henry House, Hollinwood Avenue, Chadderton, OL9 8EF. Printed by Mirror Colour Printers (Oldham) Ltd, Hollinwood Avenue, Chadderton, Oldham OL9 8EB hosts into a one-point lead; only for Ryan Brierley to seal a victory for Toronto.
Although the initial feeling was of disappointment, the Rochdale boss is now looking for that brilliant and brave performance to set a precedent for the rest of the season.
“We’ve set a standard now and we need to stay at that standard.
“We can’t just be the back that performance up. If we do we will give ourselves a real good shot of winning.”
Heading into the Easter Weekend, Hornets were third from bottom on two points after one win from five matches, but they do have games in hand on some of the teams around them in the Betfred Championship table.
Monday’s opponents Featherstone Rovers have made a good start to the season, and had won six and lost just one of their opening seven games ahead of their Good Friday match against Toronto Wolfpack.