Woods wants Thunder treble

Mar 30 2008 by Neil Farrington, Sunday Sun

DAVE WOODS has ordered his Gateshead Thunder players to make it a treble treble against Hunslet this afternoon.

Thunder can record their third straight National Two win against the Hawks at Gateshead Stadium (kick-off 3pm) – but they can also record their third win against Hunslet this term.

Add to that the fact that Gateshead have already achieved that feat against York City Knights thanks to their great Northern Rail Cup form, and Woods is keen for his men to record a hat-trick of hat-tricks.

Calling on his men to put in a polished performance for the full 80 minutes, Woods said: “We know we can win this match if we concentrate for the game’s entirety and do not go into ourselves and start gifting them points.

“When we put our plays together and go at sides with confidence, we look great.

“When we stand off and let teams come at us though we look a totally different side.

“The players know which of the two teams I want to see today, and they know which they want to be as well.

“So in many ways it is straightforward for us – if they listen to what they are told then they will come away with the win.”

Woods said he expects the likes of Dan Russell and Neil Thorman to keep upping their games, so that others follow suit.

He said: “Right now we are doing OK, and we were pleased to get the first two wins out of the way, but we have targeted all three because we really feel they are all winnable.

“We proved the first two were, even without playing to the best of our abilities.

“Now we’ll need to raise the level to get the third win we have planned for, but I’m confident we can do just that.”