Kelly praise for fine Rams effort as Diskin counts cost of mistakes

It was the second time in nine days that Dewsbury had overcome their local rivals following the Good Friday Championship win and Kelly admitted his side are working hard to turn their form.

Kelly said: “I’m delighted to get the win, obviously, but I’m a little bit frustrated as well because we are working a lot harder than we need to to win games and that is because we are not being smarter.

“The players just need to realise that if they do things a bit smarter and use better techniques then they will be fitter in the second half, which traditionally, this year, has been the part we have struggled in.

“I have nothing but admiration and gratitude for the players, who have put loads of effort in.

“Even last Monday, when we got turned over in a bad way, I don’t think it was because of a lack of effort it was more this technique situation that we need to sort out.

“The sin-binning was a godsend as far as we were concerned because we scored a try in that period.

“I thought Andy Kain did really well and he led the fightback ably supported by the likes of Douglas and Iggy (Igbinedion) and we showed tremendous character in fighting back.

“We got ourselves into a winning position but then the whole discipline problem rose its head.

“It is romantic to be involved in the cup competition and with Swinton turning Huddersfield over that’s another team from our division in there.”

Batley counterpart Matt Diskin was bitterly disappointed to bow out of the cup after seeing his side build up a 16-4 lead midway through the first half bef.

Diskin said: “I thought we were in control for most of the first half but at the start of the second half we were really poor.

“We weren’t clinical when we had the ball and when Dewsbury had the ball they rolled us down the field as we were weak in contact.

“There were too many one on one misses and too many weak decisions and that cost us the game.

“I don’t think anyone who builds a lead wants to cling onto it as that is really negative way to play.

“We wanted to build on the lead but ultimately our contact in D (defence) was weak and there were too many one-on-one misses.

“It doesn’t matter how much tackling and wrestle work you do, unless a player is brave enough to put his body in front of the ball, you are going to miss tackles.