DEWSBURY RAMS coach Paul March felt his side had fallen at the first hurdle when they went down to Workington Town.
The Rams had control of their top four destiny going into their final three fixtures against the Cumbrians, Midlands Hurricanes and Rochdale.
But a 36-20 defeat to Jonty Gorley’s side now has them very much on the periphery of the top four places.
March said: “I’m disappointed. We set out to make the top four and these last three games were massive for us, and we stumbled at the first hurdle.
“It’s now a massive game against Midlands the next time we play.
“All the damage was done in the first half. The attitude of some players in the warm-up, having to pull them in and say ‘look we are not where we need to be and reset’, I think that went into the game.
“I will back the players one hundred percent every week, but that first half, some of them need to look at themselves.
“There are two games left now but it felt like we were playing for the end of the season to come rather than playing for our goals of top four.
“Game plan wise, the people that came to our open session last Friday will have seen that we played how we wanted to play ball in hand, just defensively we let ourselves down.”
March handed a debut to Tenneson Neagle, who had recently joined up with the Rams from National Conference League side Shaw Cross Sharks.
He said: “We made some changes and brought Tenneson in for his debut and I thought he went well. He had a bit of punch about him and I’m sure if he carries on doing that, the Dewsbury fans will take to him just like his uncle Shane.”
March has also handed a chance to another player from the community game ahead of the registration deadline.
Dave Benson has linked up with the Rams from Kippax Welfare on a four week trial in a bid to earn a deal for next year.
The versatile hooker came through the scholarship system at Leeds and also spent time in the academy set-ups at Castleford and Bradford.