SHEFFIELD EAGLES went to Featherstone Rovers yesterday with an eye for knocking Sean Long’s men off their perch at the top of the Championship table.
Sheffield took Rovers all the way, trailing by just two points with minutes to go, only for Caleb Aekins to dive over on the hooter as Featherstone ran out 28-20 winners.
However, there were a number of flashpoints during the game, with the Eagles reduced to ten men at one stage when Vila Halafihi, Cory Aston and Jesse Sene-Lefao all found themselves yellow carded.
Now, head coach Mark Aston believes the game was “spoilt”.
“I guess it would have been quite an entertaining game if it had been allowed to be,” Aston said on the Sheffield Eagles’ YouTube Channel.
“The scoreline suggests that but 13 against 10, really? There’s some questions that need answering because the two teams that were out there I thought had a dig and it was good but it was spoilt.
“We showed a lot of character, a lot of effort and there was plenty of positives. But, I don’t think it was our best game, I don’t think we played but I don’t think we were allowed to.
“I thought the game was stop start and frustrating and all those things probably boiled over at times.
“I can’t knock them for their effort. I thought when we were down to 10 we had to scramble.”
Aston believes his players were “let down” by the officials after his side put in such a valiant effort to take the unbeaten Championship leaders all the way.
“What happens to them (the officials) and who wants to ask them questions?
“Because my players have busted themselves today to come up with a performance they can be proud of and I thought we got let down.”