Sheffield Eagles: Aston up for Leigh challenge

Aston’s side visit the pre-season favourites tomorrow looking to heap more pressure on a Centurions outfit that have already been beaten by Batley and who threw away a 32-6 lead in a draw with Bradford last weekend.

The Eagles chief is convinced his side can capitalise on what he believes is a lack of unity among their expensively-assembled squad, which includes a host of former Super League heavyweights.

“You put your head on the block by saying you are going to go through the season undefeated. When you lose the first game then everyone has a bit of a chuckle,” Aston told The Star.

“What I see is that they are a team that aren’t together and I think that is evident

“One of the concepts that we are all about is togetherness, and I can feel and see looking at some of their performances that that isn’t the case. We have to challenge them to see how tight they are, put pressure on them and see if they can come up with the answers.”

Aston watched the Centurions put in a Jekyll -and-Hyde display against the Bulls last week when a horror final 20 minutes allowed Bradford to steal a point.

He warned that the Eagles would be in for a stern test of their top-four credentials, but knows that Neil Jukes’ side have been far from their perceived best.

“I went to watch them against Bradford last week and they were very good.” Aston affirmed.

“I left after 60 minutes when they were 32-6 in front because I thought they would go on and win by 50. It wasn’t the case because in the last 20 minutes they got challenged and they dropped off.”