Gildart is back after a four-month injury layoff.
Oliver Gildart is ready to make up for lost time by picking up his first silverware for Hull KR on Thursday. The centre made a return to the side last week after a four-month injury layoff and now gets another crack and helping the club secure another trophy. After an impressive start to the season, the centre suffered a knee injury at Magic Weekend, which has seen him miss a significant chunk of the season. It was a bitter blow for Gildart, who had discovered top form at the start of the season and was among Rovers’ star performers during their excellent start to the campaign. He missed the Challenge Cup Final and a string of other big games. But after getting a full game under his belt, a title decider incoming and then the play-offs, Gildart is determined to contribute to Rovers’ end to the campaign. “I feel like the lads have done the hard work, ” Gildart said. “I’m just lucky and grateful that hopefully we can get the job done this week and lift my first silverware for the club. “It was tough not being out there at Wembley, especially seeing the boys win. It’s not the same not being out on the field. But I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. For me, I want to get back playing as good as I was before. If we keep turning up and getting results, that’s the main thing. “It’s about going back to basics. My job is what it was before and this time of year it’s not flash plays, it’s small details. I just want to do my job for the team.” While things didn’t go to plan collectively against Wakefield in Gildart’s return game, the outing has put him in a position to kick on for the final games of the campaign. “I don’t get too nervous anymore but I was sat on the bus and Peta Hiku could tell I was nervous, he was creating conversation to keep me going. But I was nervous, with the lay-off and towards the backend of the season, you just want to play well. But I got through OK and I’ll improve with some minutes under the build and some confidence in the knee. “The plan was to do the 80. We’re running out of time now. Hopefully, there are three games to go, so the plan was to do the 80, which I did, and go from there.” We’ve had a couple of conversations throughout being injured and it was good he (Willie Peters_ had the trust in me. It was a good little reminder we need to be a lot better. We were better in the second half they just took us by surprise to be honest. “They were on from minute one and took us back a little bit. But there were some positives in that second half for us. Hopefully we can get the League Leaders’ Shield lifted in front of our home fans, have a week off and get ready for that semi-final. “We’ve got a close group here. We weren’t singling people out but I think everyone can put their hand up and say we weren’t at our best. It wasn’t great to go through but you can have off games and the good thing is in the second half, we looked more like the usual Hull KR.”