Eamon O’Carroll explains St Helens pride despite York Knights defeat

Eamon O’Carroll expressed pride in his young St Helens side after they went down to York Knights.

The interim coach oversaw a disappointing defeat to the Super League newcomers that saw their play-off hopes take another beating, with Saints now two points adrfit of the top six with six games to go.

Speaking on Sky Sports, O’Carroll said post-match: “I’m proud, the same as I was last week.

“A little bit frustrated as well. I think we clearly didn’t give up, but we really lacked some execution at critical times during the game, which let us down. But some great learnings in there for what’s a relatively young group.

“There’s huge belief within the group, which is fantastic. And I think there’s some easy fixes in there as well, but although it’s easy to say that we’re going through a bit of a tough period at the moment, we’ll be the first to hold our hands up and say some of them things aren’t by our standard, and it’s important that we rectify that and rectify it quicker.”

An optimistic O’Carroll heaped praise on Harry Robertson after his performance, which saw him score and create up several others as he continues to thrive in the halves.

“I thought he really stood up today. But I think young Billy (Keeley), who made his debut, was fantastic as well. We put him on early, and he got some really nice early involvement, so he certainly didn’t look out of place.

“Collectively, I think we’ll go through the whole squad in terms of who really stood up. But again, we just lacked that little bit of execution at key times, really, and we got punished for it.”