Wakefield coach Chris Chester has laughed off talk of a nervy start to 2019, insisting that his side have not simply become a bad side overnight.
Trinity started the new season with a disappointing defeat in London last week. However, after back-to-back fifth-placed finishes and a strong pre-season campaign, Chester is hopeful his squad are well-placed to respond against St Helens on Sunday.
“We’ve got another 28 games to go at,” said Chester, “so there’s no panic stations here.
“Yes, we’re all disappointed with the way we performed last week, we were second-best in a lot of areas. Fair play to London, they knew how to play that pitch better than we did and they were better across the park. But you don’t become a bad team overnight.
“We’ve had some decent form in the friendlies, and I’m looking for us to bounce back this weekend.”
Chester also reiterated his frustration from the post-match press conference, with regard to letting the club’s supporters in, down in London, as well as again admitting that his side hadn’t prepared as well as they perhaps could have, for the defeat by Danny Ward’s Broncos.
However, he insists that he has seen a different preparation from his troops this week.
“The most disappointing thing from last week,” he said, “was that the fans travelled in numbers but we came up with the poor effort we did. We have all got to take the flak, but it’s my job to make sure they are prepared right. We’ve had a couple of tough days, some honest conversations and we are now set on a better performance at the weekend.
“It was an ugly viewing on the way home,” he continued. “We watched it four times and it didn’t get any better. We showed it to the players on Monday and the disappointment was still there. But collectively, we’ve looked at what we did during the week and, looking back, we didn’t prepare as well as we could have done.
“The players will take responsibility for what happened on the field, but I’ll take responsibility for that part of it.”
