A jubilant Carl Forster praised his squad’s attitude as they completed a league double over second placed Midlands Hurricanes to move three points clear at the top of Betfred League One with just eight games remaining.
Speaking following the game, he said: “I’m really proud of my players out there today, that’s a performance which shows why we’re at the top of the table.
“Midlands are a big side, they’ve recruited some quality players so to have come away from the game with a win which sees us move three points clear, that speaks volumes about the squad we have here.
“For me, that game was always going to be tight, if you look at it, we’ve got Jake Spedding, Sam Wilde, Jordan Case and Ben Evans all out – they’re big players for us, but credit has to go to each member of the squad because whether it’s players playing week in, week out, lads pushing for a starting spot, or the injured players they’re all playing a huge part.
“We went into the game with a plan, we knew that it was going to be tight, they’re a physical side and look to strangle you and then capitalise on your errors, I though that we managed that really well.
“There were some strange calls in the game, I think we’ve probably had one or to tries ruled out which I need to watch back, but that’s not the focus for me now, I want this squad to have all the accolades which they deserve.”
With eight games of the regular season remaining and a two week break before third placed Workington Town visit Stadiwm CSM, Forster believes that attitude will be key for his players going into the final run-in: “We’ve got a couple of weeks off now, we’ll be training hard, taking a look at Workington and getting ourselves in shape for a tough final stretch to the season.
“Where we are is nice, but it’s important to remember that nothing is won at this stage and we’ve got to be really on top of our game in the fixtures we have left to play.
“You’ve seen Goole beat Dewsbury, Swinton beat Workington and Keighley beat Rochdale this weekend, that tells you just how tough this league can be.
“I think we’ve slipped up twice this season against Goole in the cup and then Swinton in the league, both of those games I felt we let the emotions of the day take over and we went away from out game plan.
“We need to learn from that, take yesterday as an example of what happens when we focus on the task at hand and we’ll let the fans enjoy the ride, enjoy being top of the league, but for us as a group, we don’t think about that until the final hooter goes at Whitehaven on the last day of the season.”