Hornets at an ‘all-time low’

ROCHDALE coach Alan Kilshaw admits his side are at their “lowest point” following Sunday’s Challenge Cup fifth round defeat to League 1 Whitehaven.

Hornets ended up on the wrong side of a 38-0 scoreline up in Cumbria and only have one league win at home to Barrow and the cup victory over amateur side Normanton Knights to show for their season to date.

”It’s disappointing to see us be out-enthused and a team run harder than us and tackle harder than us,” said Kilshaw. ”We’re at our lowest point. There’s no denying that and it’s up to everyone – the staff, myself and the players – to get us out of this. We’re very low on confidence.”

In mitigation, Rochdale’s start to the season was stunted by several postponements because of the severe weather conditions, while several players have been missing in recent weeks through injury. ”You can point to things like no [Rob] Massam, no [Lewis] Palfrey – which are big outs for us – and we lost Ben Moores in the first set [against Whitehaven], it’s never going to be easy when you’re losing key players like that,” added Kilshaw.

The Hornets coach confirmed the club are looking to make additions following the departures of Ryan Maneely, Callum Mulkeen and Aiden Hema last week. He said: “We’re scouring the market for players, we’re in the market for players, but at the moment, the market is pretty bare.”