9:36am Friday 6th August 2010
By David Parkinson
IAN Millward is determined not to see a repeat of Sunday’s poor performance against Dewsbury Rams.
Leigh Centurions’ display in the 30-6 home loss left a sour taste in the mouth of the head coach but he was keen to point out that there have been good strides made by the squad.
He said: “It has made it pretty tough to finish second or third, but if we can win our last two games we can definitely finish in the top four which will give us a home play-off game. We’ve made some good inroads in regards to moving on from last year.”
Because of the surprise defeat to Dewsbury, targets have had to be realigned ahead of their next outing at home to Toulouse Olympique on Saturday, August 14.
Millward said: “With the loss we are running third. All day we didn’t play to expectations or replicate the previous week’s performance. We’ve got to focus on how we can improve and not let that happen again.
“We were disappointed with the performance but are not going to spend the rest of the season reflecting on it.
“We’ll learn from it, move forward and make sure we nail a top four position. The players are upset and disappointed with their performance. It just shows how mental approach is so important.
“All I can emphasise is, they didn’t carry out instructions. If we carry out instructions we’ll be a lot more dominant. What we produced was nothing on how we went about training for the game. That’s where I’m disappointed.”
Millward wants his men to go on from here and create some memories.
He added: “You remember more if you are successful, if you win the play-offs, you remember great victories and that is what we’ve still got in our hands. We’ve got to aim for a home semi-final and if we get in the last four, who knows?”
The club is preparing for two events, with the Corporate Golf Day involving at least 10 companies pencilled in for this Friday.
On Saturday night The Park Inn will host the Centurions end of season award ceremony. Tickets have been selling well for the event, which starts at 7.30pm, and will see singer Alexander Stewart and Lauren Waterworth providing entertainment.
Last week the Centurions Reserves defeated Dewsbury 40-16 thanks to tries from Steve Nash, Anthony Nicholson, Adam Higson, Gareth Thomas, David Armitstead, Adam Jones and Ian Mort, who also kicked six goals.
The Reserves were also supposed to be in action on Tuesday night against Barrow, who could not raise a team, but will now not play until a trip to Featherstone Rovers on Wednesday at BigFellas Stadium, kick off 7.30pm.
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