James Ford, the head of Featherstone Rovers, has demanded better after’standards fell’ against Whitehaven.

Despite returning from Cumbria with two points comfortably in the bank, Featherstone Rovers head coach James Ford was scathing of his team’s performance.

Rovers defeated Whitehaven 28–24, but they made things difficult for themselves by making mistakes that let their opponents to win till the very last siren.

“I’m happy to take the points back to Yorkshire, but our performance just wasn’t up to par,” Ford remarked.

“I don’t want to belittle Whitehaven; I believed they played well and had a chance to win the game. However, we just didn’t follow the plan overall—missing tackles, making mistakes, and giving penalties.

“We must do better and hold ourselves to far higher standards than that.

“There has undoubtedly been some difficulty due to the absence of important players, new lineups, and the addition of certain guys who haven’t played with the squad at all.

“But we don’t want to take that route and start making excuses; there was more than enough talent to play better than they did on that field.”

Ford is clearly looking for an improvement in this Sunday’s home game when Fev take on Halifax Panthers at the Millennium Stadium.

He went on, “We need to build towards Halifax and go after it in our prep.”

Positives can be drawn from the Whitehaven game, especially from Connor Jones’s performance as a stand-in half-back.

“He did okay for a hooker playing in the halves,” Ford clarified, extending his regards to Jonesy. He moves quickly and posed a threat a few times.

He could have ended the game for us by breaking the line in the closing moments, but Whitehaven made a fantastic last-ditch tackle. Wynne’s attempt was well-kicked, and it almost led to another.

“He’s given me some food for thought, but we still have some work to do and haven’t perfected the combinations on the right edge.”

Jack Bussey and Connor Wynne were injured during the game for the Rovers, but Ford is optimistic that both players will be able to play this week.