Rovers must defend better on own try line says Fieldhouse

WOOLSTON Rovers’ head coach John Fieldhouse is confident his side can improve after starting their campaign with a narrow loss away to Drighlington on Saturday.

Tries from Craig Middlemore, Billy Maunder, Chris Mellor and Will Chadwick kept Rovers in touch, but their hosts side closed out a nervy victory by a slender four-point margin.

Afterwards Fieldhouse highlighted areas in which his side could improve before they play next against Oldham St Annes in a fortnight.

“We have still got plenty to work on, especially when we are defending our own try-line,” he said.

“That let us down three times, and allowed Drighlington to score some cheap tries.

“I am confident that we will improve significantly over the next few games once we have more minutes under our belts as a team, and also we should have a few more bodies back from injury.”

After Drighlington opened the scoring early on through Lee Mulhern, centre Middlemore scored in the corner to hit back for Rovers.

A further score made it 12-4 at the break before Kieran Roche moved the visitors further ahead shortly afterwards.

However Rovers stormed back when Middlemore broke the line and fed Maunder to score in the corner.

Despite two further tries for the home side, the visitors kept on coming and Mellor forced himself over under the posts with Chris Twigg’s conversion reducing the deficit to 10 points.

Maunder then found Chadwick in the left corner in the final minute, and Twigg’s conversion brought Rovers back to within a score.

However Drighlington held on for a win.

Rovers: Wil Maudsley; Chris Twigg, Justin Becker, Craig Middlemore, Will Chadwick; Theo Holt, Billy Maunder; Chris Mellor, Ryan Brown, Bobby McGregor, Sam Wood, Lewis Hoarty, Josh Sudlow. Subs: John-Paul Ainsworth, Dan Fearnley, Andy Addison, Richard Potts.