HUNSLET coach Dean Muir knows he has to find a quick fix to stop the problems which contributed to a heavy defeat at York undermining his bid to hoist the Leeds side off the bottom of the table.
But the coach also knows bringing in further new players isn’t an option as, having marked his first season in charge with promotion from League One, he works to stave off an immediate return to the third tier.
The 58-8 setback at the LNER Stadium was an eighth loss in nine league games and the heaviest of those, with Muir’s concerns deepened by halfback Lee Gaskell, one of a string of additions to his squad, picking up a hip muscle injury.
“We’ve come into a really good competition and we always knew we would likely get a few hidings, but that one was really tough to take, because in the second half, we just weren’t good enough,” he said.
“In previous games, we’ve been competitive and hung in, but when York jumped up a level, we didn’t go with them. They ran over us and their middles were allowed to dominate, and we have to do better.”
Hunslet are next in action at Sheffield on Friday, and Muir continued: “It’s not easy, because we have injuries, and we’re not in a position to bring people in at the moment, but as staff, we have to find a way of putting pressure on players to perform.
“We need to eliminate errors, because while we were still in the match at half-time (when York led 22-8) we made one at the start of the second half, they went the length of the field to score a try off the back of it, and we hardly saw the ball for the next 25 minutes.
“And we are looking at the mental side of it as well, trying to make sure that when the going gets hard, the lads stay resilient rather than finding excuses.”
