Penny: King has been a godsend for me
12:00pm Friday 18th July 2008
KEVIN Penny is optimistic that a difficult few months are now behind him as his partnership with Matt King starts to flourish.
The lightning-quick winger was a whirlwind success during his breakthrough year in 2007 before being struck by a dose of ‘second season syndrome’.
Some sublime moments have been interspersed with spells out of the team but Penny has now re-established himself in the side and his combination with King on the left flank is looking dangerous.
Penny has scored five tries and King has crossed four times in the last three games, so the 20-year-old is hopeful that a challenging period has now been put to rest.
He said: “I expected this season to be a lot tougher than last year but it’s been even tougher than I thought it would be.
“I’ve had some ups and downs and my form’s not been where I’d like it to be. It’s just about how you come back from the bad times.
“There’s only one way to come out of it, you’ve just got to stay confident, work hard and keep a smile on your face. Hopefully I’m coming out on the right side of it.
“I like to think I’ve worked hard, done some good work in training and got myself back in the team.
“Hopefully I can stay there until the end of the year.
“Obviously I knew my defence wasn’t up to where it should have been but I spoke to Kingy about it and we’ve been working hard in training.
“Because I knew myself where I was going wrong, it made it that bit easier to put it right.
“It’s still progressing and there’s a long way to go but hopefully I’m moving in the right direction.
“I think Kingy’s really been a godsend for me this year. We get on well and I knew we’d come good in the end.
“He’s come in for some really unfair criticism this year and it’s upset me a bit.
“He’s been trying so hard to put in good performances and it’s not quite been happening for him, but he’s confident again now and he’s playing really well.
“He has helped me out so much and given many tips. As long as I keep listening to him and learning, it’s going to be promising for me.
“I’ve just got to keep my feet on the ground and keep working hard and listening to the people around me, then I can only progress.”
Penny had the disappointment of seeing two of his best achievements of the season quickly overshadowed.
A stunning try in the Challenge Cup tie at St Helens was negated by a handling error that led to a home try as Wolves eventually bowed out, while it was showboating rather than scoring that hit the headlines after his recent hat-trick against Wakefield.
“I was a bit disappointed with that,” said Penny about the Wakefield headlines, which focused almost solely on Jimmy Lowes’ disapproval of the showboating on the way to his third try.
“A lot of people made it worse than it actually was. Jimmy said to me exactly what he said to the media.
“There was nothing wrong with what Jimmy said and I’ve not got a problem with that.
“As for the St Helens game, I was quite gutted really after that.
“We put everything into the game and I scored a try which looked like it was going to put us in with a good shout of winning.
“I came up with the error in front of my own goal-line but that’s all part of my learning.
“I bounced back from that straight away the week after. The disappointment was gone.
“I just don’t look back any more.
“I keep looking forward and see what comes.”