3 Way At Vale - Started out as Halloween Shocker

Vale Game: We started out a real shocker, I was thinking the players were providing some scary times of their own for tricks or treats, that or remnants and tired heads from night before Halloween parties..., [insert] any more Halloween themed cliché’s you can think of too..., (like last week) We were playing uphill to start and I think the players genuinely missed each other sooo much in the week they decided to all crowd around the ball in a tight knit pack of game bystanders and observers. This afforded a very well structured Vale to leverage the spaces and almost like clockwork, try after try rattled by us, in what was made to seem a long and gruelling first half to spectate as family members and coaches of the players. I think we did find the try line in the first half but only just.

2nd Half was a different story all together..., we found better shape, we managed to find pace on to the ball and some cracking yards gained by Rhys, Hugo, Bailey and Tommy (Nice work Tommy - Keep it up!). Super efforts again rucking and tackling from Charlie (without the war cry this week) and Kyle. Gutsy display from Will (W) and Oliver..., Well done all players actually..., the 2nd half took some composure and pluck to bring the game level and to an end at a 6-6 draw.

Terrific sportsmanship shown by Vale as they were a really good team on the day and a lesson for us on how to compose an attack and defensive line of players on the field. I expect if they had maintained all their best players on the field we would have had a different score line, but who knows, we missed a few players ourselves due to half term too, so I look forward to the return game at some point later this season.

Fleetwood: Speaking with their coach, I was surprised to learn that around 40% or more, we're new players this season. That's incredible, this didn't seem evident from the game as Fleetwood held their own a lot of the time through the match and put up a well-played, physical and fast paced game. Good game and a win for Rossendale 8-1.

TEAM WORK - Rossendale: We coaches have been banging on about this a bit lately and as coaches want to impart better team work from the players to keep morale up, energy going, communication high, support, support and more support..., and vision for players to think less as individuals and bring in and use the team around, both in attack and defence. I think we’re seeing small signs of this sinking in, great team work with Charlie and Kyle making a difference in breakdowns together and Bailey and Hugo finding the opportunity again to break through the defensive lines supporting each other and finding the try line. Joe and Rhys really kept the engine running with super energy in the heart of the game and finding space and capitalising on it! Fraser, Will (W), Oliver providing good support in both defensive lines, and attacking phases. This is something this weekend and in training we'll try to keep building on, over and over, but it's not only a physical technical drill but mostly a mental competence and agility we want to encourage (which is the hard part).

Overall - a terrific day out a Vale, whom are gracious hosts with super facilities and a strong team we need to take on board lessons from for our own game play. A draw and a win on the day was a great result for the Rossendale players.