SHEFFIELD EAGLES coach Craig Lingard says cracking fine details will strengthen his side’s bid to make a play-off impact.
The Dronfield-based team have nailed a seventh-place finish but have struggled to beat the teams above them.
They have several times come close, recently at Doncaster, who withstood late pressure to claim a 24-18 victory.
In their closing regular-season match against a makeshift Widnes side at the MEPS International Home of Football Stadium on Thursday, Sheffield won 12-8, meaning they have two victories from their ten clashes with sides in the top six (they haven’t faced Newcastle).
The other was 22-6 at home (then the Steel City Stadium) against Barrow in February, and Lingard noted: “There have been many instances of us getting close but not being able to get over the line in these games.
“After Doncaster, we’d had five defeats against top-six sides by a combined total of 19 points, and that’s a bit of a pattern.
“We are often competitive, and we were against Doncaster, when in the last 15 minutes we had enough possession and good position to have won, but we couldn’t get through.”
Lingard felt the absence of halfback Kai Morgan and second rower Alex Foster was telling.
“We missed Kai’s running out of the shape provided by Jordan Abdull, while Alex is a big miss on the edge. We put Jack Bussey out there but then we’re without him in the middle.
“We probably went wide at the wrong times, and when we tried to go through them, they defended well on their goal-line.
“If we can sharpen our execution and tidy up those fine details, we can cause teams problems.”