Hunslet RLFC: We gifted Doncaster the points says Thornton

Hunslet are down to seventh, two places outside the play-offs, following Sunday’s 30-14 home loss to Doncaster.

Thornton’s side led 14-6 at half-time, but failed to compete in the final 40 minutes.

“We chose the worst game to have an off day,” admitted the coach.

“It was one of those days when everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

“It’s massively disappointing, we weren’t beaten by quality, we beat ourselves.

“Less than 50 per cent completions overall is not where we need to be at.

“It was 90 per cent [in the previous game] against Bradford, which doesn’t make sense.

“Too many players had an off day and we were beaten by a team who are no better than us at all.

“We were the cause of our own downfall.”

Thornton was most alarmed by the manner of Doncaster’s tries.

“They scored a barge-over try from a tap penalty and two dummy-half scoots,” he recalled.

“There was a kick to the corner and then an effort when we were pushing their tryline to score and they went the full length.

“They didn’t score a good try, we gifted them every one.

“With an eight-point lead at half-time we should have defended that, but we started the second half really poorly and people started disappearing. We have got to be mentally tougher.”

Sunday’s loss followed defeats by Workington Town and Bradford which ended a seven-match winning run.

Thornton added: “We are having a bad spell.

“Everyone has one and we need to get out of it pretty quickly. We’ve had three defeats in a row and we’ve got to recover.”

Ryan Wright is facing four to six weeks on the sidelines after suffering a badly dislocated finger, which required surgery and Jack Lee (biceps) is a doubt for Sunday’s game at Keighley Cougars.