Boss Horne admits Doncaster RLFC gave him 'a few scary moments' in narrow win over Batley Bulldogs
Doncaster RLFC boss Richard Horne admitted his charges gave him “a few scary moments” before clinching a late 16-12 win over Batley Bulldogs at the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium.
“For the first hour we were in complete control and led 12-0 which could have been more,” said the club’s longest-serving coach.
“We put some big men on the field at that stage of the game because I thought we’d be okay but in hindsight that probably hurt us a little bit because you could see that they were struggling to move in the conditions and laterally we were getting caught and they managed to build some momentum on the back of that.
“Once they got their first try they had the momentum and that is everything in this game and scored again to level the scores with just over five minutes left.
“We looked a little bit flat at that stage. I don’t know whether we shut up shop a little bit and stopped playing because we went a little bit one-out, which we didn’t ask them to do, which made it easier for them to defend.”
He added: “We got them a few times out wide early on but then the ball started to get muddy and it was hard to keep your feet at times and everything started to look slow.
“Although the conditions didn’t suit the way we want to play this season, they were better than I feared they’d be in midweek in view of all the rain we’ve had but they were still tough.
“Batley are also a very resilient team and know how to stay in games, especially at home, and they hung in there and gave themselves a chance at the end.
“Fortunately for us Tom Holmes came up with something special to create the position for our winning try and sometimes you need players to do that – especially at this stage of the season when things are a little bit clunky.
“Given the amount of territory we had it shouldn’t have got to that stage and probably we should have been a bit more direct when we were on their line and used the big men we’ve got.
“But at the end of the day we are happy because we picked up two points and that is what we came here to do.”
The Dons, who are without a game this weekend, have drawn Salford in the first round of the 1895 Cup.
“Although we’ll try and win the competition it has lost some of its appeal with it not being played as part of the Challenge Cup final day at Wembley,” said Horne.