Sheffield Eagles: Scoreline didn't reflect our dominance against Halifax, says Mark Aston

The Eagles looked to be cruising towards a comfortable victory, until a late onslaught by the hosts closed the gap to just two points.

Aston’s side held on to win, but the Eagles chief was content that for 65 minutes, his side were in total control.

He told The Star: “Was the result in doubt? I suppose when it is that close, it is.

“But we dominated for 65 minutes as far as I'm concerned, the disappointing thing is for the last 15 we were hanging on.

“We were in total control of the game at 20-6. We were dominant. Then it changed in the last 15 minutes.”

The Eagles remain in with a mathematical shout of making the top five, but after all their rivals won, the gap remains at four points with just three league games remaining.

There is still a Wembley final to look forward to, and Aston admitted he’ll be keen to tighten up on what was a sloppy end to their victory at The Shay.

He added: “We decided to give them a bit of a leg up and stopped doing the good things which we had been doing. Like any team at this level, if you give them some chances, then they'll take it.

“We coughed up the ball a little cheaply, we gave the ball away a couple of times, and they came back at us to push us close.”