Dewsbury Rams/Batley Bulldogs: Hard work is the key to picking up first victory

RIVAL BETFRED Championship coaches Lee Greenwood and Matt Diskin have the same message – keep working hard and wins will come.
Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood. Picture: Tony Johnson.Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood. Picture: Tony Johnson.
Dewsbury Rams head coach Lee Greenwood. Picture: Tony Johnson.

Dewsbury, who were beaten 26-22 by York City Knights in their first game last week, are at home tomorrow another team looking for their first win, Swinton Lions (3pm).

Batley Bulldogs have lost both their opening matches and visit Halifax (3pm).

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Swinton finished bottom of the Championship last year and Rams coach Lee Greenwood admitted: “It is a big one.”

Batley Bulldogs head coach Matt Diskin.Batley Bulldogs head coach Matt Diskin.
Batley Bulldogs head coach Matt Diskin.

He said: “Whoever loses this one is definitely in a relegation battle and I would say possibly whoever wins it is in one as well.

“Whoever loses will be looking at trying to pick up wins wherever they can and trying to get out of the bottom-two.

“That’s how it’s going to be for quite a few teams when they play each other.”

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But the coach insisted Rams’ approach will not change this week – or whoever they are playing.

“I can’t talk for Stuart [Littler] at Swinton, but we are not targeting certain games,” he stated.

“We go into every single game with the plan to win, whether that’s Swinton at home or Toronto away. That doesn’t change, our mindset is it’s a must-win every single game.”

Swinton were crushed 64-10 at Sheffield Eagles in round one and lost 31-12 at home to Bradford Bulls six days ago.

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“I know they didn’t do well in their first game, but they were definitely the better team for quite long periods against Bradford,” Greenwood noted.

“They gave them a very good game and they will be coming to Dewsbury thinking they have got a very good chance of getting a win.”

Rams led 16-0 early in the second half of their opening game against York before going into what Greenwood described as “meltdown”.

But he stressed it is not as simple as reproducing their 40-minute performance last week for the full match. He said: “It’s easy to say that, but what we need to be better at is understanding what got us into that position and what worked for us, then not getting that panicked when we are under pressure and getting out of it a lot quicker than we did.

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“It got really frantic and panicky for no reason. When you get into control like that you just have to handle it, but every game is different.

“This week we might have to do the chasing. We have got to learn as we go along as a group.”

Meanwhile, Bulldogs boss Matt Diskin is looking for his team to improve “massively” after their collapse last weekend.

They trailed 16-8 at half-time against Rovers and were beaten 42-14 and Diskin said: “Halifax have recruited very well.

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“They’ve spent their money from the top-four on more quality players and we are going in as underdogs and under no pressure. But where the pressure comes from is we have got to get better. How the scoreline blew out last week was not right for us, it doesn’t sit comfortably with us.”

Diskin admitted Rovers’ full-time players made a big difference, but stressed: “The stuff we can control is how effective our third man in is in defence and things like that.

“That’s what we’ve been concentrating on and we have got to correct that this week. The group’s still tight, we’ve got a really good group of players who are working hard.

“We know if we keep focusing on processes rather than results we will come up with the wins we need.”