Watson and Hoggard back in the picture
The postponement of the league game at Pontefract on Saturday was not the ideal preparation for the National Cup semi-final, but such things cannot be helped.
The referee’s injury meant the game was abandoned on 30 minutes, we were leading 10-7 at the time and I felt we were in full control of the game.
They only managed to get into the game with a try due to a momentary slip from our re-shuffled team.
Ponte gave away a lot of penalties and I am surprised that the referee did not show a few cards considering the home side’s negative tactics.
They are battling for survival in Yorkshire One as they are rooted to the foot of the league table, so they were obviously desperate for every point they could gather.
The game was abandoned due to the referee’s injury, and because there was noone of a suitable standard available to take charge of the game for the remaining 50 minutes.
We were told that there was a Level 9 referee on one of the other pitches at the club, but that would not have been suitable for our game as they need to be Level 7.
These kinds of things happen, there are not too many referees so you are very unlikely to find two of the required level at the same club.
We had quite a few players missing from the first-team through injury at Pontefract, but I am hoping to get most of them back for Saturday’s big cup semi-final with Bridgnorth at Silver Royd.
Former skipper Phil Watson played for the Vikings at the weekend after a year out through injury and Charlie Hoggard is also back in the reckoning so there is plenty of competition for places ahead of the Intermediate Cup showdown.
The lads got a taste of the big game atmosphere when they beat Blackburn in the quarter-finals, so hopefully they will be able to shine once again in front of what I hope will be a big crowd this weekend.
We are training as normal this week and after the game was abandoned on Saturday I took the players through a fitness training session on the pitch, so they should all be ready for the big match on Saturday.
The lads got a taste of the big game atmosphere when they beat Blackburn, so hopefully they will be able to shine
again”