I WAS very pleased with last week’s victory at London Skolars.

London are a very good side and they had run York to within two points on their own ground just a couple of weeks before, so to win with such a considerable margin was a great achievement.

It was done too on the back of some adversity.

We lost Gregg McNally to an ankle injury only 15 minutes before kick off and young Brandon Pickersgill, who had travelled down as 18th man, had to step up.

But Brandon had prepared as if to play and his professionalism was there for all to see in a magnificent performance at full back.

It was the signing day deadline last week and we managed to bring in another three new recruits in Tuoyo Egodo, Jy Hitchcox and Jonny Pownall to strengthen us in the three quarters.

I’d like to welcome them all to the club, along with Jordan Lilley who came the week previous.

We didn’t get Jonny over the line until late Friday afternoon, but I am sure he will be a big asset to us over the coming weeks.

We have already seen what Jy can bring to the team when he is fit and both Tuoyo and Jordan had very impressive games at London and showed what they will bring to the squad along with James Green, who also had a tremendous impact.

At this time of the year you want to be bringing in players who will make a difference to the squad and not just boost the numbers. We saw with those three that they will certainly do that.

This week we face Whitehaven at Odsal and they will be difficult opponents for us.

We went there in June and they were really tough opposition.

They work hard as a unit and for each other and have a lot of skill, so we will have to be at out best to come out on top.

Last week saw the Yorkshire v Lancashire Academy Origin game at Odsal.

It was on the same day as we were in London, so I didn’t get to see it.

Yorkshire won, which is always good and from the reports I’ve had all three of our representatives, Keelan Foster, Rowan Milnes and Oliver Wilson impressed and again that is a fine testament to the youth development at the club, an area in which we have invested heavily.