Old Albanian ‘not a million miles away’ as the search for consistency continues
Old Albanian V Taunton - Tobias Mundy in action for Old Albanian. Picture: Karyn Haddon - Credit: Archant
Old Albanian head coach Gavin Hogg believes his side has what it takes to rise to the top of National Two South – they just have to do it on consistent basis.
A sluggish start in the 35-21 loss at home to Taunton Titans saw them ship 21 unanswered points but a brave fightback almost rescued a couple of bonuses and who knows what else.
And the Woollams supremo wants his team to replicate their second-half showing on a weekly basis.
He said: “We were very honest as a group when we came down from National One. We wanted to make sure we put ourselves in the best possible position to put us at the top end of the table.
“We haven’t had all our players available and like every other club we have picked up a few injuries.
“That’s affected us in terms of consistency in key positions but we know we’ve got the capabilities to beat any side in this league on our day.
“But the challenge is to do that back-to-back each week. It’s no good pulling out one good performance one week, like we did against Rams, and then following it up with a loss.”
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Tries from Dan Watt, Ned Warne and Tobias Mundy plus three conversions from Watt kept them close and on an equal-footing with their west country visitors in the second-half.
But for Hogg it was just a reflection of what had gone before.
He said: “The game has probably been a reflection of how our season has been.
“There were some really good bits where we imposed ourselves on the opposition and I guess a sloppy start where we showed the other side of us.
“In fairness to Taunton they finished very well when they got inside our 22 where we probably left a score or two out there when we got in similar areas.
“It’s one of those where we we’ll find bits to be positive about but we have to address those issues quickly and get a bit more of an all-round performance.
“Maybe our set-piece fails at key times in certain areas of the pitch and I was very disappointed with that in the first half.
“The second half we got a bit of parity at that level so you ask yourself ‘what does it take to get us that from the start’?
“We know where we’re at. There are a few small things we can tweak and we’re not a million miles away from hopefully stringing a few wins together.
“That’s going to be our challenge.”