Proud coach Kelly convinced there's '˜more to come' from Dewsbury Rams

DEWSBURY RAMS' 40-28 defeat at Featherstone Rovers in the Betfred Championship Shield left coach Neil Kelly both proud and frustrated.
Neil Kelly.Neil Kelly.
Neil Kelly.

Kelly felt Rams put in a huge effort, but let themselves down with familiar failings.

“Overall, I am proud of the lads’ efforts,” he said.

“It is a difficult place to come and looking at it purely and simply from the effort side of things, I thought we gave a good account of ourselves.

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“The reason I am not bustling with enthusiasm is because I thought we could have given a better account of ourselves.

“If we had have given a better account of ourselves, maybe we would have threatened to win the game instead of just making for a high-scoring game.”

A flurry of tries either side of half-time left Rams with too much to do.

Kelly, whose team are fourth in the Shield table, described that as “the story of our season so far”.

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He said: “The players stuck to the game plan – and some players performed to a really high level.

“It is typical of Dewsbury’s season this year, you show a bit of promise and then you do something wrong.

“The season isn’t over, we have two games left, but what a great occasion if you come to Featherstone and do the business throughout and get a win.

“Unfortunately, we are not ready to do that yet. Featherstone know how to put pressure on the opposition, but we were a bit complicit in allowing them to do it, sometimes our discipline let us down and sometimes the officiating let us down. I did feel at one point he [the referee] was refereeing under two different sets of rules.

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“Ultimately, there is no complaint about the referee dictating the outcome of the fixture.

“I did think at times he was a bit generous to Featherstone and too responsive to crowd noise, but that is not the reason why we lost.”