Dons in confident mood ahead of Dewsbury clash

There had been expectation among fans that second-rower Sam Smeaton, who had equalled Kevin Parkhouse’s tally of 19 tries set back in the 1985-86 season the previous week, would break the long-standing club record for tries in a season by a forward.

But the man who had scored four tries against the Choughs down in Cornwall earlier in the season rarely threatened to add to his tally which has taken him to the top of the overall Betfred League One list.

“Obviously it would be a nice personal accolade if I were to both set a new record and finish top try-scorer in League One, but my main focus is on trying to help us get promoted via the play-offs,” he said.

Asked whether he thought some people with fond memories of the charismatic Parkhouse would be sad to see his name deleted from the club records, he replied: “I haven’t beaten the record yet.

“I wasn’t born when he set the record although my dad was a friend of his and he obviously remembers him playing.”

Looking ahead he said: “We’ve got to play newly-crowned champions Dewsbury at home on Sunday, and we go into that game having found a bit of form again after the defeat at North Wales Crusaders. We’ve scored 120 points in our last two games without conceding so we can take a lot from that.

“To score 60 points in a game is tough and to keep our opponents to nil in both games is probably testament to what we are capable of really when we play as we know we can.

“The game on Sunday was won after 60 minutes and we could have, as we’ve done previously at times both home and away, leaked a few points in the final quarter and put a damper on the result. But we kept a clean sheet despite having to do some defending on our own line.

“We know Dewsbury will be much tougher opposition than we’ve faced in the last two weeks and they’ll want to go out on a winning note. We’ve given ourselves a tougher route to the Championship than we hoped would be the case, but if we win all our remaining games then we’ll go up so the goal is still achievable.

“Were we to beat Dewsbury that would boost our confidence going into the play-offs and put some of the other teams involved on notice as well.”