Head coach Lee Greenwood still relishing the challenges being thrown up at Dewsbury Rams

Dewsbury Rams coach, Lee Greenwood. PIC: Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com

Greenwood was appointed last autumn after previous coach Neil Kelly resigned.

Kelly was concerned about the playing budget for 2019 and Greenwood – whose side visit Widnes Vikings tomorrow evening for an 1895 Cup semi-final (8pm) – went into the post with his eyes open.

After successive heavy defeats by Toronto Wolfpack and Leigh Centurions, plus Barrow Raiders’ upturn in form, Rams are third from bottom in the Betfred Championship and only points difference separates them from the relegation places.

Dewsbury are competing against clubs with more money to spend on players, but Greenwood said, even in hindsight, he would still take the job.

“It’s not easy, but it never was going to be,” he stressed.

“It was always going to be challenging and, as disappointing as [last Sunday’s] defeat and some of the other results are, I knew it would be like this.

“The surprise to me would be if we were a lot higher up the table and comfortably away from this position.

“I saw our team training four times a week in pre-season and I knew what I’d taken over. I knew what positions we needed to recruit in and we are probably still looking.

“We have to keep battling away and just staying up in this division this year is, to me, a success with everything that’s gone on, the timing of everything and how the squad looked.”

Championship survival is the main goal, but Rams are also two wins away from a Wembley appearance in the 1895 Cup – and they have won at Widnes already this year in the league.

“It is another free hit,” Greenwood said of tonight’s tie. “Everyone’s expecting a comfortable Widnes victory.

“We won’t have the element of surprise because we’ve already gone there and beaten them once, but we’ll just go and give it our best.

“If there was a trophy Dewsbury were going to win this year it was either the Yorkshire Cup in pre-season or this one. Our two objectives are to try and go as far as we can in this and to stay in the division and that has not changed.”