HEAD coach John Fieldhouse admits watching his Woolston Rovers side suffer another play-off defeat was ‘ hard to take’.

For the third year in a row the Green and Golds’ bid for promotion to National Conference League Division Two has ended at the play-offs stage.

They have been beaten finalists in the past two seasons.

A 16-10 defeat at Dewsbury Moor last Saturday felt achingly familiar to a loss at Drighlington at the same stage 12 months earlier.

It means they will play in Division Three for at least another year.

Fieldhouse says he could not fault the effort of his players in Saturday’s final, but says their execution let them down.

Looking at the season more broadly, he said a high turnover of players was a critical factor in their failure to gain automatic promotion after they finished six points adrift of champions West Bowling.

“It really is a hard one to take,” he said.

“I cannot fault the effort and spirit of the side on the day, but we just failed to pull off what would have been a fitting end to the season.

“Our completion rate was only 53 per cent, and in a tight game you have to do better than that.

“We made four clear breaks during the game that we failed to convert into points, and that has come back to haunt us.

“We have used 52 players in our league campaign this year, and that is far too many.

“If we are to reach our full potential, then we need to be able to put a similar team each week.

“For most of this season, we’ve had to make six or seven changes for each game.”

Rovers did not end the season empty-handed though; they beat Latchford Albion to take home the Stuart Middleton Foundation Cup in August.

And despite his side’s heartbreak last weekend, Fieldhouse says there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

Indeed, he believes the A team’s success this term points to a bright future at Monks Sports Club after they won all four trophies available to them in 2017, points to a bright future at Monks Sports Club.

“It’s is the third year in a row we have come up just short in the play-offs,” added Fieldhouse.

“But we have made massive strides as a club in that time.

“We have won five trophies this season as an open age; four of them from our North West Men’s League side that completed an unprecedented Grand Slam.

“That is testament to the work done by Andy Penny, Steve Moore and also John Morris with the under 18s.

“And many of them have stepped up on a regular basis to play open-age rugby.

“The quality at the club has definitely improved, and we certainly have a lot to look forward to over the next few years.

“The coaching staff have worked well together and hopefully that will pay dividends for the club over the next few years.”