SIMON SMITH: Training ground work is paying off

While they were pretty one-dimensional as an opposition, it was great to see us improving in the areas we have been working on in training sessions.

We have been putting a lot of work into getting support to the breakdown a lot quicker to help out our players who want quick ball and that paid off massively on Saturday.

The likes of Cade Robinson, Tom Hicks and Sam Dawson all demand the ball at pace and we have been working on getting it to them in a more timely fashion.

It’s incredibly important as a coach that your players believe in what changes you’re trying to implement, and also agree that they are areas for improvement and the guys have bought into it.

A lot of our improvement has come through the form of Jordan Wakeham and Tom Ratcliffe, who are using the ball so well.

Jordan’s confidence has rocketed and that is bringing consistently positive performances as a result.

While I was impressed with the whole squad on Saturday, I was particularly pleased with Cade and Manning Smith.

They both arrived after the start of the season and are really starting to grow into the squad and adapt to life in this league and at Scarborough RUFC.

It is incredibly easy for a winger to get lost out wide and offer very little if things don’t go their way, and I thought Manning really grew on Saturday and came inside to help out well too.

Cade was handed the man of the match honours and it’s hard to argue with that as well.

We face a long trip to take on Percy Park on Saturday, knowing that we’ll need to front up and play with pride to come away with anything from what will undoubtedly be a tough outing for us.

Winning there would be a fantastic achievement and would really springboard us into back-to-back derby clashes against Malton & Norton and then Bridlington to hopefully wrap up what has been a superb 2018 for the club in style.

Having said that, we need to keep all of our focus on Percy Park on Saturday and forget about the local derby games that will follow.

Our away form has been fantastic and I’m keen for that to continue this week.