DESPITE finishing 2019 with a 10-try hammering of Keswick, Wilmslow Wolves coach Chris Jones could not shake a feeling of disappointment in his side's display.

As expected, the North One West leaders ran out comfortable victors over the division’s bottom side at the Memorial Ground on Saturday.

It means the Wolves will enter 2020 with a 10-point lead at the top of the table and in the box seat for promotion.

After watching his side win 56-8, however, Jones accused his side of “careless, sloppy play” at times.

However, he admits it is hard to be critical of such a dominant victory and of an injury-hit side that have already used 40 players this season.

“On the one hand, we got the five points we wanted,” he said.

“It’s hard to be too critical when your side has just scored 10 tries, but the performance was still a bit disappointing.

“We weren’t as clinical in taking our chances as we should have been. The intensity of our play in recent games was just missing.

“It’s all very well raising the bar against the likes of Birkenhead Park and Sandbach, but you can soon slip up against less fancied sides if you allow your standards to drop with careless sloppy play.

“We got away with it on this occasion but we may not be so fortunate on another day.

“Nevertheless, if we’d been offered a 10-point lead by Christmas back in September, we would have grabbed it with both hands.

“We’ve had to bring in a lot of players – already 40 have worn the shirt this season – and it’s to the credit of all of them that the side has just kept producing the results.”

Lewis Bell kicked the strugglers into an early lead before a fine lineout catch from Jack Masters set up position for Harry Patch to score Wilmslow’s first try.

Alex Taylor then scored twice either side of a barnstorming Adam Taher effort as the Wolves had the four-try bonus point sewn up early.

Having been repeatedly called back for marginal forward passes and mishandling, the hosts had to wait until close to half time for their fifth try as Taylor pushed his way over to complete his hat-trick.

Four more tries followed in the third quarter, with full back Ben Day involved in three of them as he put scrum-half Sean Street away as well as scoring twice himself.

Bob MacCallum’s quick-tap penalty led to Sammy Lawton crossing for try number nine before Keswick managed one of their own through winger Ryan Weir.

Still, it was immaterial at that stage as Day completed his hat-trick to bring up the half-century for the Wolves, whose first game of 2020 sees them welcome Stockport to the Memorial Ground on Saturday, January 4.