Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood was proud of his teams effort despite defeat at the hands of the York City Knights on Sunday.
Greenwood believes that the players showed a real fighting spirit on the pitch and insists that if that continues for the rest of the season he is confident the Rams can win enough games to help them stay in the division.
He said of the defeat: “We are distraught at how things have turned out with losing the game and you talk about different reasons for it. I thought we showed up today with a good attitude this week. We got into a lead of sorts and York were in a bit of trouble, we haven’t quite got that mentality of when things are going against you, you just need to rock up and do the things that need doing, which is why the lead evaporated quite quickly before half time.
“I thought we were good value for pulling it level and then going in front and I don’t think anyone could have had any complaints if we had gone on to win. There is a little bit of that 1% thing that we lost, the kick and chase were a big part of the game and they were better at it than us. Again the short kick off that we needed to claim and didn’t, and their kick try too.
“They were having people going down injured every two minutes, they had cards to deal with so they knew they had it tough. I have said before that James has built a good squad here and has got a good core here now which he’s had for a few years and once you add quality to that it helps. Even in adversity they rocked up and got the job done. We aren’t that yet, we are just on the start of our journey, we aren’t quite that, we fall into a whole sometimes and don’t know how to get ourselves out it.
“However there were some good signs and that was much better, as much as everyone is distraught in that dressing room once the dust has settled and everyone has time to reflect and look at themselves in the mirror, it is better than what we have witnessed in the last few games.
“I have spoken about the losing run we have been on and the losing runs the club has had in the past and it’s nothing new, and this season losing in the last few minutes is nothing new either. It is something we have gone through a lot now and if the games ended at 70 minutes then we might be on the door of the playoffs, but it doesn’t. Next week is a massive game and like I said before we need people who have a stomach for the fight, that includes supporters and staff. If you haven’t got that then let us know so you won’t be apart of it because it’s only by being together and working for and with each other that we will get out of situations like this.
“It’s in our hands still, it isn’t like we are in Rochdale’s position which is looking more like dead and buried. If the players turn up with the same effort as today then great, but I am not taking any credit over that today in how the lads have played and taking it to the wire. A lot of the lads have played in three games and so we haven’t trained much over the last week with having three games. We haven’t seen the lads since Wednesday, and so the lads have really turned up today and had a good dig, and if they can show that in the remaining games then I am sure we will win enough games.
“What the players are realising now by default is what we have been saying and practicing on for a while now. The probably didn’t quite get into it, but now they are starting to say the same things we have been saying for a long time now. So it is good in a way, it’s a shame it’s taken so long but listening to the players they are seeing the same things that we knew needed addressing. However you need the players to buy in to it and do it and there were good signs today. That is probably the most hurt I have seen the lads in the dressing room, I am not going to be too hard on them. It hurts losing like that again and in a way it is worse losing like that than in previous weeks. However I much prefer to watch that than what we have seen before, we were in it, instead of the game being gone after twenty minutes. A lot of my decisions were technical calls rather than how to keep the score down.
“I am sure from a supporters point of view they will just be as disheartened as we are in the result. You can see we nearly won it we were competitive, it is amazing that when we played Widnes and Leigh our attack was hideous and it looked like our defence was poor. However in large patches today it looked like our attack was good and we caused York a lot of problems. York also threw a lot of shapes at us and our defence was good, and whilst I know they had a lot of adversity, I can’t knock a lot of what we did today. It is literally on the lads and I know if we all turn up with the right attitude including myself we will have enough to win enough games to stay in this decision.
“I’m guessing supporting Dewsbury isn’t the most easiest of roads to tread, and when you come today after the last few results then you’d be forgiven for thinking York would have a comfortable afternoon. York are a good side, but we got off to a good start and at half time you are probably thinking York might run away with it. However after they got back into it I thought we battled well and eventually deserved to take the lead I don’t think anyone can question that. I don’t think many could complain if we had come away with a win.
“I thought people did really well especially with three games in a week, people have put different minutes in. I thought Iggy and Trouty put in a good eighty minute stint, they worked their stones off and they have played in all three. I thought Tom Garratt went well in the middle of the park and then all the lads who came off the bench contributed. We lost Robbie Ward early on to injury which obviously threw everything out of the window to start with as we only came with one nine as it was. That wasn’t part of the plan with Robbie coming off early, Michael Knowles stepped in there and I thought he did a good job. I thought Liam Finn and Paul Sykes did an excellent job and really caused York all sorts of problems. I sensed things in the second half at Widnes as we caused them problems too which sounds daft to say we were losing the game and it had gone, but I did feel something on Wednesday at Widnes that we could come here and challenge them.
“We are still level on points as it looks like the table hasn’t changed, so it means we are still in a dog fight and relegation scrap. However I believe if the players can turn up like they have today with the same mind set and attitude then we can win enough games and stay in this division.”
On the injury front Greenwood added: “Robbie is a tough lad and doesn’t go down easy, and for him to come off and stay off isn’t great, Sam Day was just rested today so he can still recover, he should hopefully be ok for next week. Either way we should be ok for next week, hopefully Robbie will be ok to train but obviously we’ll check on him throughout the week.”
