Reflecting on reaching last weekend’s milestone, Aston said “Obviously, it’s a massive milestone to reach for the club, it’s my hometown club and I’ve come up through the system here. Sheffield is a club I’ve grown up supporting my whole life, and the dream when I was younger was to just play for the club.
“To be able to enrich my name into the club’s history with over 1,000 points for the club is a dream come true, it’s something which can’t be taken away, and it’s nice to see myself and my dad sit in the top two of the points-scored list.
“It’s been a massive goal that I’ve wanted to achieve for a while now, so to be able to do it is something that my family and I are proud of.”
Aston will return to the capital on Sunday afternoon to face one of his former sides, and he spoken openly about his time with the southern-based club.
“It’s always an experience that I look back on,” he added.
“I spent two years down there in London, it wasn’t quite what me and my wife had anticipated going down there.
We got married there, and within four-to-five months, we headed into lockdown, so it obviously changed what we’d planned on doing whilst we were down there. My son, Vinnie, was actually born down there too.
“I absolutely loved working with Danny Ward, when he was down there, alongside Jamie Langley and Mike Eccles.
“It was a fantastic bunch of people I worked with whilst I was there, the fans were brilliant, and I look back on that experience with fond memories.”
Having previously played for the club, the half-back knows exactly what to expect from them this weekend as they look for their third league win of the season, just like the Eagles.
“London have got a similar record to us, they’ve lost a lot of games so far, so we know they’re going to be chomping at the bit to get that win.
“We know we’re up against a hard-working team in London, they’re always renowned for being really fit and physical, and we know we’re going to be up against it.
“Mike Eccles always has his teams up for it and in top-condition, and they all want to work hard for him and one-another.
“They always start games strongly and I can imagine that they’ll try and do that against us on Sunday.”
After last week’s disappointing result against Bradford, Aston feels that the squad are all hurting still and want to put the wrongs right. With the game also being moved onto the 4G pitch at Rosslyn Park, he feels that the switch in ground could help play to the Eagles’ advantage this weekend.
“We need to find that little bit of form. We got that good win against Batley a couple of weeks ago, but then we found it a little bit tough at Bradford last weekend.
“You know it’s always going to be tough at a place like Odsal, we were all disappointed with the result in the end, but we look forward now to London.
“It’s on the 4G at Rosslyn Park, something which we’re used to. It’s a small ground, but the pitch is wide, so we feel that it could really suit us
“It’s always a good bus journey back if you get that win down there, so that’s what we’ll be aiming for.”
Aston acknowledges last week’s disappointment, and stresses the importance of getting back to basics, rebuilding team confidence, and delivering a full 80-minute performance to help kick-start the Eagles’ Betfred Championship campaign.
“We let ourselves down last week, we went away from doing what we planned on doing, and it’s another one that we let get away from us.
“We need to ensure we get two points this weekend, we know going down there will be a tough place to get those two points.
“We need to build a little bit of confidence within the group, when you’re not picking up wins or playing to your full potential, you can be quite low on confidence.
“We just got to make sure that our fundamentals are in place and our effort areas are good to kick start our season. I kind of hate using that phrase, but that’s what we’ve got to do.
“We’ve got to build on from the positives from last week, such as the first half, and take that into a full eighty-minute performance.
“Hopefully we can travel down there, get the job done no matter how it looks, and make sure we come away with two points and the win. That should help us bond more as a team, and head us into a good position for that game at home to Hunslet in two weeks’ time.”