CARL FORSTER says it’s important North Wales Crusaders’ players don’t allow their heads to drop during a tough run of encounters.

For the fourth time this year, Crusaders will come up against Championship opposition in the shape of Sunday’s 1895 Cup visitors Widnes Vikings.

Keen to make sure the players kept their heads up in light of their tough contests, head coach Forster said: “We spoke about it at length. We’re quite a quiet bunch, but the lads spoke up and reiterated what I was saying.

“We did quite well in large spells of the game (against Bradford Bulls). That should put us in real good stead for League One. There were a lot of positives after the game.”

Crusaders eventually lost out 48-2 in their Challenge Cup tie at Bradford and Forster told the club’s Facebook page: “I think the first 25 minutes was probably the best 25 minutes we’ve put together since I came to the club.

“Our completion rate was 93 per cent and when we went set-for-set, we were 2-0 up at that stage and I thought we bombed two tries really early on playing through our middles and we made some good inroads on them.”

Crusaders’ previous tie in the 1895 Cup was last month’s 40-12 defeat to Swinton Lions, who then went on to defeat Widnes in their next match-up.