Reserve Grade Newcastle Knights coach Simon Woolford couldn’t wipe the smile off his face on Saturday, ecstatic with his side’s six-point comeback win over the Wentworthville Magpies.
“I am really happy for the boys, they deserved that win” smiled Woolford.
“Over the past eight weeks we’ve been pretty good; we had those four wins and those two heartbreaking losses literally on the full-time siren so it’s good to see they bounced back with a couple of wins in a row.
“We have guaranteed our spot in the semi-finals so I’m really pleased for the boys and the way they hung in there yesterday and got the result, it was just really good to watch.”
The ISP coach said the four tries that came in the last ten minutes, including a double from Brendan Elliot, were an exciting way to finish the match.
“In the first half, we didn’t play well with the footy but we defended quite well,” Woolford admitted.
“We were into a stiff breeze and the team we came up against had a lot of NRL experience.
“They were a really strong, big, athletic type team and we knew we had to control the ball to give ourselves any chance.
“In the first half, we dropped too much footy and gave them too much field position.
“In the second half, we got to 12-8 and let a couple of tries in which were disappointing but I thought once we scored the first try and kicked the goal to be only 12 behind, we were some sort of chance of maybe salvaging a draw.
“But to just go four straight tries to win the game was truly amazing and you don’t see those sorts of wins very often.”
Woolford says they re-evaluated after their Round 22 bye.
“After the loss against Illawarra, we had the bye and we spoke about coming back and starting again and how our next three weeks were really important,” explained Woolford.
“We really needed to make sure we made a go of it, we wanted to win all three.
“We have won two out of two now and it’s nice going into the last round not having to win and rely on other results to guarantee us a spot in the semi-finals so that’s a really nice position that we put ourselves in.”
ISP have their final match of the home and away season against minor premiers the Wyong Roos on Saturday.
