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Pressure eases as Knights record first win
DONCASTER Knights were in seventh heaven after beating Plymouth Albion 21-6 at Brickfields to record their first win of the season after six successive defeats.
Knights, who had been expected to be challenging for a top-four spot at this stage of the season, remain second bottom, but the result takes some of the pressure off team boss Lynn Howells.
"To be honest, I felt more for the players than myself," said the Welshman, who refused to panic when results didn't go the club's way.
"The players have been working very hard and just not getting what they deserved out of it.
"Being a manager, you just keep working hard because you know that you are doing the right things, and it has just been a case of waiting for our first win.
"I don't think that we've been as bad as our record would suggest and we could have won two or three of the six games we've lost.
"We just didn't take our chances at times and our confidence was low.
"I probably expected that we'd get our first win at home, so it's a big result to get off the mark at a place like Plymouth where we'd won only once in four previous visits.
"It was the manner of the win which pleased me more than anything - our forwards dominated the game, especially in the first half.
"We turned around at 6-6 but we'd had enough chances to have been a couple of tries up on them.
"We spoke at half-time about the fact that we'd been giving teams 20 minutes in the second half and the biggest point we made in the dressing room was the need to take the first 20 minutes, which we did."
Injuries have blighted the club's inaugural Champion-ship campaign and Knights were forced to include utility back Steve McColl and forward Dan Smith on the bench even though both were carrying knocks.
Assistant coach Brett Davey, who played just over half the game, also had to come out of retirement to make his Doncaster debut when filling in at full-back.
"His communication and direction was superb and the players responded," enthused Howells.
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Weather for Sheffield
Thursday 09 February 2012
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