Woods warns troops

Jun 30 2007 by Nick Purewal, Evening Chronicle

DAVE WOODS wants his Gateshead Thunder side to prove the lessons are finally learnt from their shaky first half of the season, (writes NICK PUREWAL).

The Aussie head coach reckons his men have finally turned the corner in terms of putting in a consistent enough showing over 80 minutes to dominate a match and get the result.

But he said all that will count for nothing if they revert to old ways when they travel to Oldham tomorrow (3pm).

Woods was impressed with the way his troops dug in and turned a first-half deficit on its head to see off Hunslet at home last week.

Now he is adamant his side must back up that with another win – and he is not fussed about how they go about getting it.

He said: “A win is a win – all myself and the players want is to get the points on the board.

“Frankly, if we are not playing well but winning matches, then great.

“Last week we kind of did both to be fair, the performance in sticking to the tactics due to the weather was fantastic.

“And ultimately that meant we could grind out the win, especially difficult to do after we had gone in behind at the break.

“But the lads need to take a lot of heart from that showing and make sure it gives them the confidence to go out and do it again.”

Tactical kicking early in the tackle sequence undid and unnerved Hunslet last time out, and Woods said if the weather turns nasty again he will have no worries telling his men to put the ball deep into opposition territory.

He said: “We changed our plan late on, and we are comfortable adapting to whatever the elements, throw at us.

“We are not worried about anyone or anything but ourselves.”