Sheffield Eagles coach Craig Lingard acknowledges the challenge ahead against Salford
Sheffield Eagles take on Salford in the Betfred Championship this Sunday
Sheffield Eagles head coach Craig Lingard spoke earlier this week about how his side need to adapt their game in order to beat Salford RLFC in this Sunday’s Betfred Championship fixture.
With an unfortunate three weeks of losses on the Eagles’ coach’s mind, there is certainly not too much to be happy about, but with the recent news of ex-Super League star Jordan Abdull’s loan to the club, a change in their performances could be due this weekend.
“I’m really pleased to get Jordan (Abdull) in, we said previously when Jordan Lilley got injured that we needed to get a bit of experience at half-back,” said Lingard.
“He is an outstanding player who has played at the highest level in Super League and internationally too. I know he’s got all the credentials you need in a halfback.
“Bringing him in is a huge boost for us at this moment in time, having come off the back of three disappointing results, where I felt we lost a bit of leadership and guidance in the final quarter of the field.
“I think it will give the team a great lift knowing we have someone coming in with his calibre to guide us around the field.
“It’s a big ask when you’ve got two young halves in Kai (Morgan) and Lennie (Ellis) to guide a team around in a tough Championship competition, but right now, we need an experienced half-back, someone who has got that game knowledge and vision, a calm head and a great kicking game.
“It’s an ideal opportunity for both Kai and Lennie to learn from an experienced half, see how he sees things and reads the game, thinks attacking-wise and knows how to end sets. We’d expect them to both pick his brains in training.
“From what I saw from Jordan (Abdull) on Tuesday, he’s very confident in his own ability, comfortable with the players around him, and he stepped in straight away and really started dominating.”
Although Jordan Abdull will bring a touch of quality to the struggling side, the rest of the squad will also need to step up their performances if they’re to return to their earlier positive league form, especially with the Eagles missing out on the chance to earn some silverware with last week’s 1895 Cup loss to Rochdale Hornets.
“We always do look for a response after a defeat, and I know we’ve had three of those on the bounce now in the league and cup”, added the Eagles Head Coach.
“The one which disappointed me the most was the cup defeat last week, how we dropped off in the last twenty minutes, having led in that game. Defensively, we did look frail at times when Rochdale attacked.
“I thought ball-in-hand against Rochdale was decent. Coming out of yardage and getting into good ball positions weren’t really an issue for us; it was just what we did and didn’t do in the final third.
“We did look toothless at times, some of our last tackle plays were ordinary, and we didn’t challenge them (Rochdale).
“We previewed Rochdale from not only the last time we played them, but from their recent games as well. They didn’t really handle being challenged through the middle on the line, and we didn’t really test that at all. We just seemed to take the short-side options, and it was pretty toothless.
“I said at the start of the year about how good defensively I thought we were. Matty Marsh played a big part in that, and up until his injury, we were only conceding around twelve points on average in a game, so taking someone of Marshy’s ability out of the squad has had a really big impact on us.
“I’d expect with bringing in Jordan (Abdull), that you’d expect that game management and our end-of-sets to be a little bit better as well.
“We need to be better defensively and stronger, especially on the edges, so again we’re looking for significant improvements on both sides of the ball.”
The Eagles’ season has been ravaged by injury thus far, and Craig Lingard was only able to announce a 20-man squad for last week’s fixture, which is a problem that may also bring itself into this week’s clash too.
“Hopefully, we will have both Jack (Bussey) and Blake (Broadbent) back for Sunday, who missed out last weekend.
“Reiss (Butterworth) also missed the game on Sunday; he didn’t train on Tuesday evening, but we’re going to have a look at him to see if he’ll be ok for the weekend.
“Kieran (Gill) and Billy (Walkley) both didn’t train on Tuesday, and we’re going to have to look at them too.
We’ll probably be without Alex (Foster) this week, who came off against Rochdale, and Josh (Hodson) has been struggling for a couple of weeks, and he had to pull out of training on Tuesday.
“Connor (Bower) trained for the first time earlier this week. He’s not done any contact yet, so Sunday’s game might be a little bit too soon for him, but we’ll see how he responds on Thursday and Friday.
“We’ve mentioned about both Matty (Marsh) and Jordan (Lilley) being out for the season, we’re still also going to be without Conor Fitzsimmons for a while, we’re looking around June time for him. Joel (Farrell) will also probably be out for several weeks too.
“We have been working hard to try and get a couple of players in, but it’s hard when there are other clubs in the exact same situation as us, where they’re wanting to get bodies in as well because of their struggles with injuries.
“We’re going to be doing it tough again, people will be playing out of position again, no doubt, but hopefully we’re starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel with a few of these players that have been out for a number of weeks, where we can start to bring them back into action over the next month or so.”
Succeeding in victory this weekend could move the Eagles back into the top six within the league table, but with Salford currently in strong form, there is certainly going to be a tough contest ahead for the South Yorkshire side.
“As you’ve seen so far in this competition, if you’re not on your game, then you’re going to get beaten. We’ve seen that a lot so far this season, and coming up against Salford is going to be no different.
“They’ve won back-to-back games in the Championship, so they’ll be full of confidence with that, and they’ve brought in a couple of players this week from North Wales, and they could still yet bring anyone in from Super League for the game.
“It’s sometimes a bit hard to prepare for a game like Salford, where you don’t know what their side will look like from one week to the next. I've watched their last three games, and they’ve had a different side in every single one of them.
“It’s different for an oppositional coach to work out what exactly they’ll do, but I also think it’ll be hard for them to work out what we’re going to do when we’re missing so many players ourselves.
“I have noticed about Salford is that they’re enthusiastic, they work hard for each other and will play for the full eighty minutes, regardless of the scoreline. We’re going to expect them to come and challenge us, be energetic and enthusiastic.
“I’m sure they’ll play with a high tempo; they’ve got a lot of young players who will challenge us and play with no fear.
“We need to try and replicate the fast start we had against Rochdale; we need to make sure we start the game well this week and to try and withstand the fast start that Salford will be looking to have themselves.”