Skip to content

Greenwood previews Rochdale fixture

Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood has given his thoughts ahead of this weekend’s game against Rochdale Hornets at the Tetley’s Stadium.

Greenwood insists that whilst Rochdale are at the bottom of the league, they won’t be easy opposition to beat.

He said: “When you look at the league table we should be looking at it a bit more positively really than this game being a massive pressure game. Unless Swinton pull off a miraculous win against Toronto then we go back above Swinton with a game in hand and it starts to look a bit better.

“Rochdale come here absolutely needing to win, their run of league fixtures will have gone Swinton, Barrow then us and they will have been looking at getting two wins out of the three and getting themselves out of it and having a fighting chance. They have lost their first two, I wouldn’t call it last chance but it is a must win game for them if they want to stay up probably. If the worst came to the worst on Sunday and we lost, it doesn’t mean that we are going down, nor does it mean that if we win we are definitely not going down, from that respect it isn’t ridiculous pressure.

“We need to get our own act together really, there has been now four or five games that we should have gone on and won and if we would have won those we wouldn’t be talking like this. Whatever competition it might be we just want to get it going here.

“You aren’t one week playing a poor team and then a week after a good side and then the week after that another poor team, you have to be on it every week because of the standard of opposition. Just because Rochdale are at the bottom of the table with hardly any points at the minute doesn’t mean it will be an easy game.

“I look at their games and they will be disappointed that they didn’t beat Swinton as they were winning quite comfortably but then crumbled. They were leading I think against Barrow with half an hour gone and ended up getting smashed, even last week they ran Batley close up until half time. That points to a fitness issue which might be right but they are not a bad side and they’ll have three or four lads from Warrington in there, plus there own guys in, so it isn’t going to be easy that is for sure.

“There are players going in and out all of the time, that happens when a new coach comes in and he’s decided to bring quite a few guys in that he has coached previously. He’s brought in some players from Rochdale Mayfield who play in the amateur game and I know that he’s still looking to bring in other players to make that team his own. I dare say over the course of the season they will improve and I think if they don’t come here and win on Sunday they will struggle just because of the fixtures remaining and the league table.

“However we need to concentrate on ourselves this Sunday because they have made changes in the last three games and brought people in, it is a bit tricky to prepare for them, a bit like it is to prepare against us too as we have brought people in and made changes. I think both teams will just be concentrating on themselves this week and trying to get the win.”

Greenwood gave us an update on the injury situation within the squad, he commented: “There were no injury worries that came out of Sunday’s game so it is just the guys that are still working back to full fitness that are out. They are all getting closer or are now available for selection, we are looking ok for numbers now.”

Finally on looking back at the victory in the 1895 cup against Swinton Greenwood was pleased to get through the tie, but still insists there are improvements to be made.

He said: “We obviously won last week and now we want to back that up and get back to back wins and start to build confidence up. We were confident at the start of the season and coming close in games, and that has since fallen away a little bit, however last week was a step in the right direction.

“We feel we should have won at Swinton the week before, we didn’t, but at least we got the right result last weekend. We are hoping to get a much needed two points up this weekend and then go to Canada under no pressure and have a good week the week after too.

“Facing facts we lost against Swinton the previous week and we beat them this week so those that were involved in the win have got a fair chance at playing again. We haven’t won too many games this year so when we do win we don’t want to then make too many changes, I thought everyone contributed to the win and no one was perfect either. There were still some things that didn’t work and were scrappy and that we need to improve on, but I also thought everyone contributed to the win and some people did some really good things in there too.

“We do want to narrow down the team to something that we want to keep going instead of making four or five changes every week, but we won’t blindly go and do that for the sake of it either. We want to perform well for the rest of the season and get consistency when we play, but people need to perform on the pitch too.

“We aren’t just going to say right that team is going to play six games in a row, it’s not like that. I thought both Joe Martin and Frazer Morris stood up well and the guys that came back into the team like Martyn Reilly did fine and Lewis Heckford played his first competitive game for us this season, again I thought he did alright.

“The consistency part comes when we say can they do that again and improve, what we have seen is that with some people they have come in and done quite well in their first game and then can’t back it up again and again which is the challenge at this level.

“Every coach will say they want there team’s attack and defence to be just as good, score loads of points and not concede many, however it is easy to say that and not easy to put into practice.”