Eagles Wheelchair battle Warriors in play-off semi-final
28/09/2023
It is double play-off day for Sheffield Eagles on Sunday as whilst the men do battle with London Broncos, the Eagles Wheelchair team will be away to Wigan Warriors A for the BetFred Wheelchair Play-Off Semi Final.
The game kicks off at 2.15pm on Sunday 1st October at Robin Park Arena in Wigan and sees the third placed Sheffield Eagles take on second placed Wigan Warriors A for a place in the Championship Grand Final which takes place two weeks later at the National Basketball Performance Centre in Manchester as a curtain raiser to the Super League Grand Final.
The other semi-final will be contested by North Wales Crusaders and Bradford Bulls.
Having turned around their fortunes this year from losing every game in 2022, to securing third in the league, winning five of their games and narrowing the gap considerably to their rivals, the Eagles will go into the game as the underdogs but far more prepared for the experience than ever before.
“I said at the 2022 Awards Night that this team would win games in 2023” said Head Coach Greg Brown. “A few people thought I was mad for saying it, but they’ve been proven wrong and the team showed the improvements I knew they were capable of throughout the course of the year.”
“We’ve still had some hard games, but the gap has narrowed and we’ve often been complimented on our style of play and the fact that we play a squad of 10 in all our games has also been positive feedback. Having played in the Challenge Trophy Final this year, our players have been exposed to important games and will take this play-off in their stride.”
Brown has named a strong line up for the trip, with David Butler returning to the side after recovering from a torn rotator cuff, as does Shaun Orton who has recovered from a recent operation which has kept him from playing for long periods. Stuart Wilkinson comes in for first team experience having played the majority of the club’s “A” team fixtures in the North League this year and Lottie Davis-Browne also returns to the side having missed the final league game away to Wigan.
The Brooks family trio of Vicky, April and Will are unavailable for the fixture, but Chris Haynes and Stephen Reilly are both named, alongside Emma Pearson who returned to first team duty in the final league game vs Wigan after injury, with Joe Wink-Simmonds and Ben Simpson both looking to continue their impressive form into the game, with captain and ever-present Jack Johnson completing the line-up.
“The message to the players is to go and enjoy the game” added Brown. “Go and show people what you can do, how far we have come as a group in the space of a year and whatever the result, we know we’ve moved forward and will be ready to do so again in 2024!”
Eagles: Lottie Davis-Browne, Jack Johnson, Chris Haynes, Joe Wink-Simmonds, David Butler, Stuart Wilkinson, Emma Pearson, Shaun Orton, Ben Simpson, Stephen Reilly,
