Prestwich Sport
Tigers eye winning run
6:50pm Thursday 3rd November 2011
SEDGLEY Tigers believe they can complete the first half of the season with a string of wins.
The Whitefield men ended a run of three successive defeats on Saturday when they came back from 14-9 behind to beat Cinderford 21-17 on Saturday.
And senior coach Rich Senior hopes that can be the springboard for a change in fortunes.
Tigers slumped down National League One during their run of defeats, but a strong second half against Cinderford restored much-needed confidence and gave the Park Lane men something to build on.
Senior said: “We’re looking to climb the league now.
“The next five games are all very winnable and it’s time to kick on and get ourselves on a roll.
“If we do that we’ll be well placed going into the second half of the season.”
Sedgley are 10th going into Saturday’s game at second-bottom Wharfedale, and Senior sees plenty of positives.
“Confidence is quite important at the minute,” he said. “And we have been a bit low on it. Saturday’s win stands us in good stead with the run we’ve got coming up.
“The lads showed a lot of character on Saturday, coming back and winning it in the second half.
“We were a bit tentative to start with, but then we played with a lot more conviction.
“We gave the ball away too much in the first half and they have a good player in Rory Teague who punished us. In the second half we kept hold of it a lot better. Sounds pretty basic but it made a big difference.”
Three penalties from Matt Riley in the first half were added to by Tigers’ first try of the game just seconds after the restart.
Mike Dutton fielded the ball and ran unopposed for 60 metres to touch down, Riley converting.
Tigers took control and half-backs Simon and Chris Parrott dominated.
Louis McGowan had another exceptional game and scored Sedgley’s second try on 56 minutes.