Mike Eccles was proud of London Broncos’ battling performance away to Betfred Championship promotion hopefuls York City Knights on Sunday afternoon.
The interim head coach handed first-team debuts to Brock Pelligra, Max Allen and Daniel Hoyes while nine academy graduates were named on the Broncos’ team sheet 72-hours after our visit to Workington.
First-half tries courtesy of Lewis Bienek, Bradley Foster and Dan Hoyes plus two successful kicks by Oliver Leyland helped the Broncos establish a 6-18 lead by half-time.
Back-to-back tries for York levelled the tie, but Broncos responded to lead by 10 points after Iliess Macani and Alex Walker crossed the whitewash before the hour mark.
A yellow card for Pelligra coupled with three converted tries in the space of eight minutes for York meant Jude Ferreira’s last-minute try was only a consolation as Knights won 36-34.
Reacting to the result, Eccles said there were plenty of positives to take from the Broncos’ performance ahead of this weekend’s crunch visit to Dewsbury.
“We certainly deserved something from the game,” said Eccles. “It’s very unfortunate that we returned with no points.
“We talked a lot about dealing with adversity building up to kick-off, so even when Brock (Pelligra) received his yellow card we expected to come through the other side – and we almost did.
“I’m really proud of the boys, particularly our debutants and academy graduates who injected the energy we required after such a short turnaround from our game against Workington.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for us to secure the win. There are plenty of reasons to enter Sunday’s game against Dewsbury with enthusiasm.
“It’s a massive fixture for the club, and the boys know how capable they are. We’ll prepare for the game accordingly knowing we can deliver a positive performance and result away from home.”
Supporters unable to make the trip to Dewsbury on Sunday, June 12, for the Broncos’ next Betfred Championship fixture can follow live updates of the match on Twitter by following @LondonBroncosRL.
Kick-off at the Tetley’s Stadium is at 3pm.