JAMAHL Lolesi said Saints continue to “do it tough” following their loss to Catalan on Saturday.
Already without Luke Walsh, they lost Jonny Lomax in the warm up and Theo Fages at half time – and that had a huge bearing on the result according to Keiron Cunningham’s assistant.
“We are doing it tough at the moment and are missing a few key players,” he said. “Missing our main half back is a big loss to us and it means we had to shuffle bodies around.
“Then, we lost Theo Fages at half time and it was pretty clear it hurt our attack. We looked a little bit lost with the ball in the second half.
“Keiron is with Theo now. He has a knee injury and is a bit upset.
“We also lost our number one in the warm up but I thought up and around the 40 minute mark we were well in the game. We had a spell of possession and then Shannon McDonnell put on a nice try for Adam Swift.
“But as the game wore on Catalan did well with the ball. They fought hard; their good strike players in Todd Carney and so forth came to the fore and we struggled as a result.
“We couldn’t stem the flow and that meant we couldn’t get the ball. When we did get it we didn’t have enough energy to get back into the game. We were ragged when we had it and looked rusty.”
He continued: “We just have to stick together. We are missing key players and that can effect confidence. We have to rely on younger players and they are feeling the pressure at the moment. But it is a great education for them.
“Sticking together is important. One of the greatest things was with a few minutes to go the fans were still right behind us here. A hell of a lot turned out and that is brilliant for the club. We all appreciate them for doing that for us. If we stick together through a tough patch then we can come through it.
“It’s not too dissimilar to a few years ago under Nathan Brown. We were down on players in that first season but we got a group together and that led into a 2014 which was good for us. The young kids playing in the squad just need some education at the moment.”
Lolesi says Jonny Lomax felt ‘tight’ in the warm up but they don’t expect any injury to be serious.
