Form vow by Nelson
ROSSENDALE RUFC head coach Mark Nelson says his side are determined to keep their impressive run of form going until the end of the season – even if they have little to play for.
Rossendale have lost just twice since the beginning of November, but were hampered by a slow start to the campaign and a series of postponements due to bad weather.
The club now sit fifth in the Northern Premier, with little chance of rising any higher, but Nelson says that the team are still keen to finish the season on a strong note.
“This year has been so stop-start, but we had a team meeting and all the lads bought into the fact that we weren’t going to peter out and just see the season out and write it off,” he said. “You always want your aim to be pushing. We didn’t start the season well this year.
“We lost away at Hull in the first game of the season, and then we lost against Kendal at home, and we stuttered around.
“We got a few wins, we got a couple of cancelled games before Christmas, which is never heard of really, and that sort of took our momentum away.
“We want to make a statement. Since Christmas, we’ve only lost to Harrogate and Preston so we want to keep that record. If there was a league table of form since Christmas, I think we’d be third.”
Indeed, Nelson feels that the only disappointment in Rossendale’s sea- son has been their results against the bigger sides in the division.
“Whilst we’ve done very well against everybody else, it’s the top teams that we haven’t really done ourselves justice against,” he said.
“That’s been the most frustrating thing of this season, so we need to look at that for next year.”
Rossendale’s last two results have been successive victories over Billingham that saw them leapfrog the North Eastern side in the table, and Nelson says that his side’s purple patch has led to a spike in confidence for their remaining fixtures: “I was talking to the captain Dominic Moon and he was saying that the team spirit is very good.
“There’s a real positivity within the squad.
“Everybody is buying into what we’re doing and I think that the players want to finish on a high to lead into the summer break. Then we look at preseason, hopefully have a good pre-season, and have another tilt at the top end of the league next year.”