Liam Finn ‘happy’ to avoid Challenge Cup upset after Dewsbury Rams beat Ashton Bears
Dewsbury Rams’ head coach Liam Finn was simply ‘happy to be in the next round’ of the Challenge Cup after being given ‘a tough game’ by amateur side Ashton Bears on Saturday.
The North West Mens League Premier Division outfit raced into a 6-0 lead at the FLAIR Stadium inside the opening two minutes but Finn’s men persevered and slowly worked their way back into the second round contest, before eventually claiming a 38-8 victory.
Finn admitted after the game: “We’re happy to be in the next round as it was a tough game. They were pretty tough. It started hailing and raining about five minutes before kick off, which was fantastic, but it was a pretty tight game in the first half.
“They really got stuck into us and kicked the ball well. We played into their hands a little bit but they were really good.
“But we built our way back into the game, although it took us a bit of time to build the scoreboard but we stuck to what we wanted to do, in tough conditions, and we eventually got over the line.”
Praising Ashton, who were facing semi-professional opposition for the first time in the club’s history, Finn said:
“We knew they were going to come out flying as it was a big day for them, as it would be for us playing against a Super League team. We knew they would give it everything in the first 15, 20 minutes and we wanted to ride that and take them beyond what they’re used to playing at.
“We eventually did that, it just took us a little bit longer in the conditions, and they dug in for a hell of a long time. It's a massive credit to them in how they kept the score close for such a long time.
“They were very good. I said that to their coaches after the game. We didn’t play poorly. There was nothing majorly poor from our performance.
“Obviously there are things to work on but there was nothing where you went, “Oh wow, that’s really poor.” We were really good for plenty of facets of the game. They were just also good.”
Asked who he would like his Rams side to draw in the third round, Finn revealed:
“Looking at how it is structured I would like another lower end amateur team but we will take whoever we get given.
“A home draw would be nice. We have said before, we are pretty limited for home games this year in League 1 so any game we can get at our home ground, and get the supporters down to watch, as well as giving the chance for the club to make a few quid, that’s what we’d like.”
The Challenge Cup third round draw will be made at 6pm, live from Featherstone Rovers’ home ground, and can be watched on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport Online.