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Greenwood reviews Keighley pre-season defeat

Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood has expressed his disappointment at the defeat to Keighley Cougars on Sunday in pre-season, however insists there were positives and there is much to take away from the fixture.

He said: “I thought for the first 30 minutes we were pretty dominant and could have had more tries and I think that would have been a fair reflection. However for a short patch before half time and then a bit after half time we were really poor.

“I have learnt a lot about squad strength and individuals and it’s food for thought on what we can improve. It wouldn’t have mattered if we would have won by two I still would have known how poor we were for the last 50 minutes. It wasn’t totally about the result as I wasn’t happy about the last 50 minutes.

“I know where the concerns are and where we need to strengthen, I knew some of the problems before the game. It highlights these problems more playing and losing to a team in the league below, no disrespect to Keighley.

“They are good lads and it certainly isn’t an attitude thing in why we lost, I would be amazed if some of those lads weren’t now looking forward to the Bradford game and trying to put those wrongs right. Also to get that sort of performance out of their system and prove that they can play at this level.

“Like I said for the first thirty minutes I was pleased with the dominance we showed and the physicality we showed. I wasn’t happy with some of the breakdowns in attack but that was my only disappointment really. You could quite clearly see who was the Championship and who was the League One side in that first thirty minutes.

“People could look at that result today and instantly think, Dewsbury are certainties for relegation, however it’s pre-season and whilst its disappointing to lose there are things to take away from it. I watch Liverpool in football and they didn’t have some good results in their pre-season, drawing to some sides, yet look at them now they are sat at the top of the Premier League with a huge gap in points and no one predicted that.

“The team who took to the field against Keighley, won’t be the one who automatically starts against Leigh, and neither will be the one who plays against Bradford. The idea of changing your team is to test your players to see if they can handle different situations, that’s how you learn about your players.”