League One side London Skolars are confident things will get better in time after suffering a club-record defeat.
The Skolars were beaten 96-0 at Keighley Cougars the weekend before last, conceding 17 tries for their heaviest defeat as a professional outfit.
They had lost all five matches heading into Sunday’s trip to Swinton Lions, conceding at least 50 points in four of them to sit tenth in League One with only West Wales Raiders below them.
The Skolars lost their head coach Jermaine Coleman and much of his squad in the off-season to London Broncos following the Championship side’s move to part-time status.
That switch has had a significant impact on their neighbours’ prospects after putting together a new-look and inexperienced squad under Joe Mbu, who returned for a second spell as Skolars head coach.
“We’ve had to start from the ground up,” said Mbu.
“We’re in a rebuild process and looking at a lot of new players. There’s a lot of young players.
“As the season goes on, things will get better. I never like to dwell on the players that are not available, the players that are injured or the players we don’t have access to.
“We hope the squad will get stronger through recruitment, with players coming in and adding to the squad. But we can get stronger. You learn from every game you play.
“It’s a difficult one with that sort of result (against Keighley), in any context and whatever way you look at it.
“On the day, we came up against a very good side and they did everything right.”
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