Sheffield Eagles must show their ruthless edge again

Aston’s side confirmed their place in the Championship Shield semi-finals with two fixtures remaining, whilst also condemning Workington to relegation after a 62-0 victory at Hallam University Sports Park.

Eagles took advantage of a Town side low on confidence and personnel, after they named just three substitutes following an injury crisis which left the strugglers with just 16 fit players.

Eagles showed no mercy, putting Workington to the sword after running in six tries before the half hour mark and 11 in total, leaving Aston to hail an almost faultless display. “We have cemented ourselves inside the top four, and put in a clinical and very professional performance,” he said.

“I thought that our kicking game was as good as it has looked all season. I thought that we looked sharp, we looked clinical and to keep any team to nil for 80 minutes is a tremendous achievement. I am pleased with the lads, it just shows what we are capable of; we could have had more points.”

It is now five wins from their last six games for Eagles, and their biggest success of the campaign so far.

In recent weeks Aston has called for his side to maintain their high standards for 80 minutes, after letting their concentration drop at stages during their recent run of successful results.

This time, Aston got the performance and result he has been craving. “We were still opening them up right until the end which was pleasing for us. We have knocked another week off, there is potentially four weeks to go, and four more games hopefully.

“I was a little bit disappointed last week with our start so we needed to be good. We knew that they were down on numbers, we knew that they had got some injuries and that they had been on the bus for a long time. We had to be ruthless and start with an intensity and I thought we did that.”