Naylor salutes a gutsy effort

SCOTT Naylor

PUTTING on one side his frustration caused by a penalty count that favoured Featherstone by a ratio of more than two-to-one, Roughyeds coach Scott Naylor said he was as proud as punch and hugely encouraged by his side's battling performance in an 8-6 defeat.

Naylor's men deserved at least a draw with a gutsy performance away from home against one of the teams tipped for Championship honours this year.

"I'm very proud of the boys," said upbeat Naylor, already with one eye on the visit to Bower Fold on Sunday (3pm) of full-time professionals London Broncos.

"Ours today was a top-class performance. We played with guts, heart and the right attitude. It was all there.

"With a little bit more patience near the Rovers line we would probably have had more points, but we deserved at least a draw and I certainly couldn't have asked for any more of the boys.

"We were dominant and aggressive and for large parts of the game we looked better than Featherstone, even though we didn't get anything out of it in terms of league points.

"When we were here about this time last year we were naturally nervous because we were still finding our feet in the Championship, but the difference between us then and us now shows how far we have come as a team and as a club in the past 12 months.

"That augurs well for the rest of the season."