PETER SEABOURNE elected not to give his Morley players the 'hairdryer treatment' following their shock weekend loss at Penrith – although others might have done.
The National Three North high-fliers tasted defeat for the first time in 15 league games – since their opening-day loss at Middlesbrough – in a 38-14 reverse at the third-placed Cumbrians, with the manner of defeat particularly galling for Seabourne.
The Maroons capitulated in the face of fierce second-half pressure and to rub salt in their wounds, they saw Stockport retain leadership of the division to put the tin lid on a bad day.
But rather than blow a gasket, head coach Seabourne opted for calm and considered reflection immediately after the match.
He said: "There was no way I was expecting us to go through the league season unbeaten from our first game when we did lose. But I was disappointed in the manner of how we did lose. I felt we had enough chances to get well in front.
"The lads were really down and disappointed. It's the first time they have been on a long trip to Cumbria and I told them at half-time they would have to be ready and fight fire with fire because they were going to come at us.
"But I didn't go off on one after the game and sat down and spoke to them in a controlled manner. There was no swearing and shouting and carrying on because they don't listen if you do that – they understood they let themselves down and me down.
"It's a case of thinking about what we did do right and wrong and putting things right."
Given that the Maroons led at the interval, the defeat was doubly frustrating and while one or two individuals excelled – most notably skipper and try-scorer Craig Field – the visitors had only themselves to blame for the disappointing loss following a slipshod second half.
Seabourne added: "We started off quite well and played decent stuff and were 14-12 in front at half-time.
"We then bombed a really good chance early in the second half and then didn't touch the ball for 15 minutes and gave some silly penalties away, which was frustrating.
"Soon after being 14-12 up, we found ourselves 24-14 down and things had turned around very quickly and we started to chase the game and we didn't need to do that.
"If we'd stuck to what we are good at doing, I still thought we'd have won. But there were too many unforced errors, really.
"Craig Field was outstanding at no.8. There were some gutsy performances, but it wasn't a team effort, just individual stuff. That's where it broke down really."
