Blackmore confident Sheffield Eagles can still hit five win goal in Super 8s

Sheffield Eagles still believe they can hit their end of season target according to winger Ben Blackmore as they prepare to host a Featherstone side looking for a fifth straight win.
By The Newsroom
Published 6th Sep 2018, 12:08 BST
Updated 6th Sep 2018, 12:16 BST
Ben BlackmoreBen Blackmore
Ben Blackmore

The Eagles were left smarting from a disappointing defeat against Dewsbury last Friday, with their target of five wins from the Super 8s now looking a tall order.

Rovers arrive in South Yorkshire having defeated Leigh Centurions last weekend with just 14 players available, which included former Eagles Misi Taulapapa, John Davies and Keal Carlile.

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John Duffy's side will be hot favourites to extend their winning run under the Friday night lights at the OLP (7.45pm), but Blackmore says the Eagles haven't given up on a strong finish to the campaign.

'Featherstone are a little scrambled at the minute with injuries, so anything can happen,' he said.

'It would be a great win if we could pull it off, and it would certainly be nice to have that feeling going into the weekend. 

'We had that target of winning four of the last five games, so we need to win the rest of the games to meet that target now. It is still possible, we want to finish strongly then we can go away and come back for a good pre-season to start again next season.'

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Director of rugby Mark Aston is again short on options as he looks at where he can make changes in the wake of last week's display.

With Max Garcia and Mike Weldon outside of the 17 against Dewsbury, the duo are likely to be included by Aston who admitted he had only 19 players to choose from last time out.

Whoever the 17 may be for tonight's showdown, Blackmore, playing against his former side, admits the Eagles must step up their game as they attempt to avoid a third defeat to Rovers this season.

'It wasn't the best performance against Dewsbury but we had control in some parts of the game but let it slip with our sloppiness. We have to do better, we know that,' he added.

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"The positives were the performance of young Blake (Broadbent), but now we have learn from it and start again on Friday. We were scrambled when we came out after the break. No-one really too control and that rolled on into the end of the game.We need to bounce back.'

Related topics:Sheffield EaglesLeigh CenturionsFeatherstoneMark AstonDewsbury