Benson bids to lift spirits

Oldham's Paul O'Connor reaches for the line.

ROUGHYEDS coach Tony Benson reckons his stuttering team’s next test will be even more difficult than the York examination.

The Knights came away from Boundary Park with a 37-24 win which takes them above Oldham and into third in a Co-operative Championship One season that has only one game remaining for each team.

A 14-0 Roughyeds lead turned into a 33-14 deficit in the second half and even a set of late tries — the last of which went to the visitors, denying Oldham a consolation bonus point — couldn’t prevent a sixth loss of the season which rules out a second-placed finish in the league.

With every side taking a week off due to the Carnegie Challenge Cup final, it is Benson’s task now to try to lift his weary men for an away match at Hunslet on Sunday, September 6.

“We lost composure when things didn’t run smoothly for us and we have probably been guilty of that at other points during the season,” the coach admitted.

“We can start well and finish well and sometimes we get the whole game right. But if we are put under pressure, sometimes we lose that composure and this game was a classic example of that.

“It was pretty tough sitting there, watching the game slip away and knowing we were only one tackle or one run away from getting back into our game.

“Then watching the bonus point go was just the most frustrating thing I have ever seen.

“I know it would have been for the players as well. Sometimes you try so hard to get things right that you over do it and I think that is what happened.

“We are obviously under the pump now and it is my job to get the players to respond for an even tougher game in two weeks’ time.”

The home side suffered from a series of injuries in a rough, tough encounter.

Prop forward Wayne Kerr took a blow to the head very early on and after being ill at half-time, was unable to take any further part.

Lee Greenwood compounded his bad luck by following up a knee injury with a crack to the sternum, staying on the field only as there was no replacement available, while Thomas Coyle was hit on the jaw in a bizarre incident late in the game.

The scrum-half stopped dead in his tracks close to the York line due to being concussed by the strike and he, along with the other injured parties, will be examined at training tomorrow night.