HEAD coach Stuart Littler says he has lots to work on to get ready for the upcoming 2023 season.
Roughyeds took back the Law Cup for the first time in three years after they emerged 18-14 victors over Rochdale Hornets.
Stu’s men were far from convincing in the win, though, and only took the lead in the dying minutes of the game.
Hornets, who this year are operating under a much-reduced playing budget, exposed faults across the field and gave the Roughyeds boss plenty to mull over.
“We’ve won a trophy, but it was a mixed bag; I thought we dug ourselves into a hole. We came through and managed to get ourselves out of it, but I think we need to be a lot smarter," he said.
“The boys got a bit of praise last week; our skill level was pretty high against Widnes and we completed our sets.
“In the first half against Rochdale, our completion rate was at 67%. We invited pressure on ourselves and when we got opportunities to build some of our own, we let them off with errors on tackle one.
“I’m glad it has happened now and not in-season. There’s loads of learning points identified today on how we can be better.”
Despite a far from perfect performance, Stu was impressed with the progress of Calvin Wellington who missed a large chunk of last season through various injuries and set-backs.
He also had praise for new-boys Deane Meadows and Zac Baker as well as his trusty half-back, Martyn Ridyard.
“I think Martyn kicked well and obviously Calvin is a handful out there, he’s really come on through the off-season, you can tell he’s worked hard at his game,
“Massive credit to Deane Meadows who produced an 80 minute performance and looked good on the back of 72 minutes last week against a competent, strong championship outfit.
“Zac Baker looked pretty strong on the left edge as well and he’s going to be a very useful tool throughout the year.”
