Trio of home games ends with visit of Prescot
After our unbeaten run in 2024 was abruptly brought to a halt by a good Widnes side last week, the third and last of our successive home Saturday games offers an opportunity to get back on the horse.
Despite only taking one point from our last two games, we’ve not lost a lot of ground over the last couple of weeks and while the management team will still be reminding the players that we’re far from out of the woods, as fans, the temptation to look up the table rather than down it is often too hard to resist.
And that’s because despite that bump in the road of losing 3-1 at home to Widnes, there’s been much to admire in the way the team has responded to a change of management mid-season and adapted to the new questions being asked of them as a playing group.
Prescot Cables represent a very tough challenge. Despite our local rivals and league leaders Leek getting back to winning ways recently, the Cables have done well to keep pace with Leek and with a game in hand on the Moorlands side, are still very much involved in a title race. We will be severely tested.
Speaking at Thursday night training, our gaffer Neil Baker was in positive mood ahead of the game. “In spite of the result, I thought we played very well in places last Saturday. I can see progress in the team whether that’s in training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings or in matches at the weekend, I’m happy that we’re heading in the right direction.
“I’m asking the players to adapt their game with changing patterns of play, slightly different roles than they may have been used to before, so it takes time for me to get those messages across and for the players to take those instructions with them onto the field.
“It means they need to be a little braver sometimes in their decision-making, but I’ll only ever ask them to do things I know they are capable of. I’m really impressed with the progress of the team.”
In such a tightly packed league, despite being pretty much halfway between the play-offs and the relegation places – in points terms at least – two thirds of the way through the season, there’s still an awful lot to play for.
However for now, we’re looking no further ahead than the challenge posed by the second best team in the division.
Come on Castle!