Sheffield Eagles’ players should not “fall in love with themselves”

The Eagles chief has reacted to the surprise defeat by Halifax by scrapping plans to give his side a week off following Sunday’s game, as work is stepped up in preparation of the trip to Leigh to put right the negatives from their display.

Aston’s side have put in the groundwork for what has been a sensational turnaround in 2019, after back-to-back seasons of struggle on and off the field.

After working hard to return to the business end of The Championship, Aston says he will fight tooth and nail to eradicate any hint of a slide, starting this Sunday with a trip to the Leigh Sports Village.

Aston said: “We've worked hard to get to this position, and we have done well. The last thing we want to do is fall in love with ourselves, which I am not saying they have, but we have to keep working hard.

“The disappointing thing for the boys was that I was going to give them a week off, now I'm not. The week after next, we were going to let them have it off but now we'll have them in and we'll work hard. I thought that we had a little bit more substance about us. It is a blip, we'll have to dust ourselves down and work hard this week to get a result Sunday.”

Eagles have already tasted defeat at the hands of Leigh once this season in the Challenge Cup at the OLP, but Aston has strengthened his ranks since with a dual-registration agreement with London Broncos and the loan signing of Warington’s Pat Moran.

After previous defeats this season, the Eagles have generally responded with a positive display in their next fixture, and Aston has held some perspective after the weekend, stating they have come a long way quickly.

He continued: “We’ve done well this season but you don't want things to go downhill, so we'll work hard to keep the position we are in. There's some work to do, but we are in a much better position than we have been over the last couple of years, that’s for sure.”