Betfred Championship: Dewsbury Rams are '˜finding their feet' but welcome fixture-free weekend

Rams picked up their first win since February 25 when they pipped neighbours Batley Bulldogs 20-18 at the Betfred Championship Summer Bash two days ago. That came a week after a 22-22 draw away to Halifax ended Rams’ 10-game losing run.

Kelly, though, is confident this weekend’s break for the Ladbrokes Challenge Cup quarter-finals will not disrupt Rams’ momentum.

He said: “We are carrying injuries and we’ve given the players a few days off this week.

“From the game against Halifax we made four or five changes. Jode Sheriffe, Lucas Walshaw, Robbie Ward and Rob Worrincy were all missing and the team has been disrupted buy one- or two-week injuries.

“The week off will benefit the team in this instance.

“It’s not like we’re on a six- or seven-game winning run and we don’t want to stop.”

Dewsbury now have a five-point gap over the Championship’s bottom two, but Kelly warned: “There’s still a bit of work to do.”

He said: “We are in a really tough competition and our next game is Featherstone Rovers at home, then Toronto away and Leigh at home so we’ve got a really tough run of fixtures coming up.

“Take nothing away from the players, they worked hard for the win, but we just need to learn how we can win these games a bit easier. In parts we played really well, we were dogged at times and we defended really well, but we were a bit naive to think we could win the game when not completing our sets.”

Rams came through with no major new fitness problems, but Michael Knowles will be assessed after suffering a possible recurrence of a sternum injury.