North Wales Crusaders head coach Carl Forster has admitted that his side’s season comes down to this Sunday’s trip to face Rochdale Hornets.
With just two games remaining, Crusaders find themselves two points adrift of the top six in Betfred League One, and Forster admits that a win this weekend is essential for his side’s play-off hopes: “It’s obvious I think, I’ve spent the season talking, talking about our need to put in a 70-80 minute performance, but there’s very little I can say now, we go into Sunday and it’s win or bust in terms of our season.
“After what we did last year, I think we’d all be gutted to not make the play-offs this season, I’m not going to sit here and say that wasn’t the goal this year as it obviously was.
“We’re two games out from the end of the season, the players, staff, fans, we all know what’s resting on this weekend so I won’t keep going on about it – we just need to go there and get a result.”
Sunday’s opponents are locked in their own battle, sat fourth in the table, a point behind third placed Hunslet, Rochdale will be no easy test for Forster’s side: “Rochdale, they’re a very good side, he said.
“They’re right up there, have a really good squad and they won’t roll over for us at all.
“With their own ambitions towards the top end of the division, they’re going to want to do a job on us, get the two points in front of their own fans and keep their momentum going into the play-off campaign.
“Encounters between the two sides are always entertaining, there’s so much on the line in this one, I don’t expect anything less than a really tough, gritty game with a bit of fire in both teams.”
Injuries have blighted Crusaders’ season from the start, and Forster provided an update on his squad ahead of Sunday’s clash: “Yeah, it’s the same story, we’re low on bodies, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a side capable of getting the result.
“My focus is on that first-half against Hunslet where we really put them to the sword, if we go out there on Sunday and produce that standard to even 70 minutes then we’ll get the win regardless of our injury situation.
“Take nothing away from this group, we’ve done it tough this year, we’ve not been able to gain that consistency, every time a player has come back another two seem to have been lost, but it’s sport – it’s part of the game, and we don’t use it as an excuse whatsoever.”
