‘It’s hard for us
ROCHDALE Hornets head coach Alan Kilshaw admits that it has been extremely difficult to compete with the bigger clubs in the division this season.
It was another disappointing defeat for Hornets on Sunday after they were emphatically beaten 70-14 at home to Toulouse Olymique at the Crown Oil Arena.
Hornets did actually take the lead in the match when Tyler Whittaker kicked an early penalty for the hosts, but Toulouse then began to run away with the game.
Constantine Mika went over for their first try on 12 minutes, before he went over for his and the team’s second just moments later.
Hornets struggled from that point onwards, with further Toulouse tries coming from Mark Kheirallah, Tony Maurel and Charlie Bouzinac, to make it 30-2 to the French side at the break.
It didn’t get any easier for Kilshaw’s men in the second half, as Toulouse picked up right where they left off.
There was some joy for Hornets as Jack Fox and Lewis Hatton managed to get tries for the home side, but Toulouse continued to dictate play with Maxime Puech, William Barthau and Bastien Ader scoring further tries as they picked up the emphatic win.
The loss means Rochdale remain bottom of the Betfred Championship table, having lost 15 of their 18 games during the campaign so far.
Kilshaw has reflected on his side’s frustrating season, and says it is tough to compete at the level of the other sides in the division.
“We talk about the difference in resources between the full time and part time teams, but we even struggle to compete off the field with some of the part time teams,” he said.
“Some of the necessities that the team need we haven’t had this year.
“Our problems have been well documented, such as the lads only having one set of training kit and not having supplements.
“We’ve had our backs to the wall in the past and been wrote off in the past, but we’re still fighting. We’re not as well resourced as the other clubs but we prepare every week and give it our best shot. There has been a lot of adversity this season but the players are united.”
While Hornets may currently find themselves bottom of the table, Kilshaw insists he won’t be giving up, and is using his side’s past successes as motivation to succeed.
“We’ve been punching above our weight for two seasons now, and even when we were in League One there was a lot of teams who were paying a lot more than us,” he said.
“You don’t always have to have a high performance budget to have a high performance team, but some things you need and with bigger budgets that brings experienced players and more depth in the squad.
“We’ve seen a lot of players leave who we didn’t want to see leave, so we’ve had to make some hard decisions on those players and staff who have gone due to the restrictions we’ve been under.
‘We’ve been punching above our weight for two seasons now’
“The majority of teams have their own ground and have big supporter bases with big networks. We’re not using that as excuses though, we don’t pity week in week out.
“We’re aiming to com-