Sharp expecting spice with Sheffield

Featherstone coach Jon Sharp is expecting a cup final-type game when his team heads south to take on Sheffield tonight.

Rovers take on the Eagles at Bawtry Road.

“There always seems to be spice between Sheffield and Featherstone, the games almost seem like cup finals,” Sharp said.

“It’s not going to be any different on Friday, it’s going to be a really tough game. We’ve got to be better than we were last week, that’s for sure.”

Featherstone Rovers beat Whitehaven 30-18 at home but coach Sharp wasn’t too impressed with his side’s performance.

“We have high expectations and I thought we just fell below that,” he said.

“We didn’t play as well as we needed to against a good footballing team. We know that it’s not good enough and if we perform like that again, then we’ll get beat.”

Sheffield Eagles lost 22-18 at Swinton Lions.

Coach Mark Aston said: “It was frustrating. We were in control then we had a man sent off, which took it away from us.

“We’re working hard and I keep telling them that the bounce of the ball and the luck of the draw will go our way one day but it’s not happening for us yet.

“We’re getting a bit of competition for places now, we’ve got a few more faces around the place so everyone is going to be looking over their shoulder, which is exciting for me for the first time this year.

“This week is about our performance, we need to get a win. The sooner we get a win the quicker we get a smile on our faces.

“In the last couple of weeks the boys have had a dig and we’re not that far off. If we work hard again on Friday and produce a performance we can get back on track.”

Wing Gary Lo is back in contention as is new signing Nathan Chappell, while French brothers Amini and Hakim Miloudi, on a month’s loan from Catalans, are available.