Securing Championship status ‘massive’ for Swinton, insists Stuart Littler

Swinton coach Stuart Littler said avoiding relegation was important for the club’s future.

The Lions beat League 1 side Workington Town 33-20 in the Championship promotion/relegation play-off at Heywood Road.

Swinton were in a financial crisis this time last year but the club have reformed themselves off the field and have managed to secure their Championship status for next season.

Littler told loverugbyleague.com: “It is massive to stay in the Championship.

“It is where I want to be as a coach. It is where the boys want to play and there were jobs on the line against Workington. I said to the boys that we need to see that more often because if the club goes down then the crowds would go down and so on.

“With no disrespect the playing opposition, they are different calibre of teams in League 1 and with the crowd that they bring in.

“We want to be in the Championship, it is a challenge and we know funding-wise, it is always going to be a challenge, especially when teams at the top end are spending Super League money.”

Littler praised Swinton chairman Andy Mazey for steadying the club’s ship and admitted that he wants to get recruitment finalised before 2019 begins.

He added: “Andy came on the board last year and made sure everyone got paid on time and a big aim of ours is to not get in the place where we were last year.

“Our recruitment has been a bit slower than other teams so far because we didn’t know which league we were going to be in but we can start now and hopefully have a recruitment drive.

“Pre-season starts again in three weeks and the boys get a bit of time off now. I’m onto some international rugby with Ireland so there is no rest for the wicked.”