LUCTONIANS head coach Ryan Watkins has told his players to ‘keep their heads’ as they prepare for a crunch game at Otley in the National 2 North relegation battle.
Watkins said that frustration got the better of his players as they fell to a 17-10 defeat over bottom-half rivals Hull last weekend.
However, with Otley sitting third from bottom and five points behind their visitors Watkins says the pressure will be on the hosts this weekend.
“They are going to be under a lot of pressure as they are five points inside the relegation zone,” said Watkins.
“Even if we pick up one point they would still be in the same position.
“They will be feeling the pressure so we will be in a different position to Saturday.
“We have got a few games left to go, but if they (Otley) lose they will be feeling the pressure more.
“We have got to go out there and keep our heads and enjoy not having the shackles on us.”
Watkins was left disappointed by his side’s second half performance during a 17-10 loss to Hull last weekend.
In a physical and tense affair Hull took a 20th minute lead through Simon Humberstone’s penalty before Robin Watts crossed the whitewash amid a pack of players.
Lucs responded and in this 100th appearance for the club Frank Kelly scored the try, converted by Louis Silver to go into half-time 10-7 behind.
The visitors frustrated Luctonians in the second half and in a rare attack Mike Adlard stretched their lead to 17-7.
Lucs struggled for momentum but salvaged a losing bonus point through Louis Silver’s penalty.
“It was a bit disappointing to be honest and I thought our decisions were pretty poor and we were not ourselves,” added Watkins.
“We can bounce back pretty quickly and our biggest lesson is that we can’t get so frustrated.
“We had the second half to score four points and we could have waited 39 minutes to win the match. They were going to try and kill the match but we got frustrated in defence and gave penalties away.”
