Dewsbury Rams: Shock loss unearths valuable insights insists coach Kelly

Kelly’s Betfred Championship side fell at the first hurdle when they suffered a 25-18 upset at League One Whitehaven two days ago.

Haven had lost their opening two league fixtures, but Rams could not recover from a poor start.

“It was disappointing, obviously,” Kelly reflected. “But though we lost, I made some changes and I have found out a lot about the fringe players or those pushing for a place in the first team.

“From a coaching point of view it was quite a good exercise, but from a club point of view it’s disappointing we are out of the Cup.”

Kelly insisted: “I thought the players we went with were more than capable of winning the game and they proved that during the game, but too often we allowed Whitehaven to slow the game down with the aid of the referee.

“I think we suffered in Cumbria the way a lot of visiting teams do by not getting mentally prepared.

“I think one or two people failed to respect Whitehaven and that’s why we travelled back feeling a bit silly and humbled.”

Michael Knowles suffered a stomach injury and Robbie Ward, Sam Day and Dom Speakman also picked up “knocks”.