ROUGHYEDS boss Stuart Littler believes Saturday’s opposed session against Almondbury Spartans was a “worthwhile exercise”.
The club was originally due to face West Wales Raiders this weekend, but due to their withdrawal from League One, Littler has put a free weekend to good use ahead of Doncaster next Sunday.
“First of all I would like to thank Craig Morgan and Almondbury Spartans for coming over to Melrose and running against us. It was a really worthwhile exercise,” he said.
“Going into the Doncaster fixture next week, we thought it would be best to get an opposed session against someone. With Super League, Championship and League One starting, it has been hard to get fixtures in.
“We called on our friends at Wigan Warriors with our reserve game last week, and this week we’ve gone against Almondbury.
“It was good to get some action into the boys. It wasn’t as physical as a game, but it was as near to it as it could be. It also gave us a chance to get some more minutes into the boys and for us to be challenged.”
Littler also gave an update on Dom Newton, who rolled his ankle before a ball had even been kicked in last Sunday’s 40-22 victory over Wigan Warriors.
“Through pre-season, it’s always a risk with injuries and we’ve ended up with a big injury to Lewis Sheridan and the one last week with Dom Newton,” he said.
“It’s an unfortunate one, the initial diagnosis on Dom’s injury is he’ll be out for a few weeks, but we are waiting on further scans.”
Despite the injuries, pre-season has gone well with victories over Wigan Warriors and Rochdale Hornets, as well as running Widnes Vikings close last month.
“We’d like to think we’ve got the details into the lads now as it’s enabled us to get some good footage.
“We’ve been able to review systems and processes and get the lads up to speed with what we want, but also praise some of the good that they’ve done,”
said Littler.
After this weekend’s League One action, Workington sit top of the table after a 58-16 win over London Skolars.
Doncaster were victorious after defeating promotion rivals Hunslet 18-16 and elsewhere Dewsbury beat North Wales 38-18 and Midlands won 40-6 against Cornwall.
Roughyeds return to League One action in two weeks time against London Skolars at the Vestacare Stadium, 3pm kick off.
The club can also confirm it has released winger/full-back Jenson Hamilton by mutual consent.
“He came to us on amateur forms and he’s decided he wants to go back to playing week in, week out which we couldn’t promise at Oldham,” said Littler.
“He’s had a bit of a scrap on to get into the team with Joe Hartley scoring four last week as well as Patrick Ah Van who has started well, too.
“He has our best wishes and he’s one we will be keeping an eye on moving forwards”
The club thanks Jenson for his efforts and wishes him all the best as he returns to local amateur club Waterhead.
