For the first time today in a long while I thought we looked tired and a bit flat, our usual standout guys didnt have bad games I just dont think anyone stood out. I too agree Moore has been very good for us this season and would love to see him and Jonno in the halves for us which you would imagine would terrify teams but today was slow and pedestrian. How you can make so many clean breaks and not once have someone on the runners shoulder is beyond me.

I thought Batley would go well this year but if we are to make the top 4 we have to be beating them at home, I certainly did not think we would be struggling after just 4 games but there is certainly pressure on now especially with London and Leigh up next which on current form we will not win.

fax made about 4 clean breaks that faltered at the last line of batleys defence as there was no one in easy passing distance. poor backing up of the players that made the breaks. I think the moore try not given for yet another forward pass along with the many others George saw. how a touch judge enters the field for what he sees as a penalty then game just restarts with next play in hard to understand. player did not have the ball and was thrown to the ground. penalty.

Probably right about being unfair on both Murrell and Moore, though its frustrating to see the attack struggling and for whatever reason us bombing so many chances with stupid forward passes etc. Maybe its that the partnership is struggling and against a good pack like Batley, we go in to panic mode and pushing passes etc when no need. Sheffield game for me was similar, that we seem to panic if we dont score and push passes and maybe try to do too much. Batley are very well coached and have quality players. We just look lost if things do not go our way.

Our last tackle options were poor today, Murrell is not quick enough in a game like this one was and I'm sure Jonno would have made a bit of a difference. Much as I don't rate Georgie Boy I didn't think he was that bad today, Fairbank was never square all the time he was on so was going to get pulled at some stage. If the passes were forward then we should learn to pass but that is usually down to the TJ not ref. The Rettie incident, to be fair it was nothing and TJ overreacted. We need to improve, simple as.

I felt for the hbs on both sides today and I think something has to be done about the play the ball speed. In every game I've seen this season it has been far too slow which has made it very difficult to break down the opposition or the creative players to really show there skills. That leads to games like today, tough forward battles with very little the hbs can do to make breaks or influence games, as the defensive lines are always set and ready for them. Thanks for the hospitality, I was sat with some cracking fax fans. Good luck for the rest of the season.

The game was won by the better team who played to their strengths and are bang in form. Not often you see our forwards coming out second best and credit to Batley's forwards they gave Brambani a great platform to dictate the game. We are making the breaks but have to have players in that are there to finish off. We need Miles at fullback, Sharpe on the wing and Johnstone at half back and certainly not going out allegedly on loan or off to Bradford- as the terrace talk would have us believe! Need to get this win one lose one monkey off our back quickly or we are going to miss the cut.
Will be interesting to hear RM's view at the Supporters Trust Fans Forum on Wednesday night.
Some tough games coming up which we will need to show more creativity and clinical finishing to get us back up the table(currently 7th!)
Keep the faith .

Correct.

We win as a team and we lose as a team.

Congratulations to Batley who were relentless. There's always a post mortem and here's mine;

* we need MG back at FB so Will can be higher up the pitch.
* Jonno and Moore at halves where does that leave Muzza
* we seemed to offload always going backwards or snatching at plays
* sometimes our back line is so deep and static
* do we need to have a look at Brandon Moore
* we seemed totally in control in the first half then a couple of brain farts later and we go in 6-8!!

I'm certain that if we score a couple of those length of the pitch tries we'd have broken them.......that's sport eh.

UTFAX

Ps not bagging the guys

Pps

Thought our kicking out of hand was pretty average and we didn't pressure their kicks either.....

A nice summer day, a firm green carpet to play on, Greenwood at FB, Will on the wing, Johnno and Gaz Moore in the halves, Muzza at loose forward, Grix in the second row, plenty of good footy to come.

Depressing performance really. Yes, I agree with the above comments that Stokes did not directly affect the result, but I would love to hear his explanation to both the disallowed try and Reittie incident. Do refs ever have to justify themselves or answer questions to bizarre decisions?? The ruck was incredibly slow, along with a skinny 10 metres, which resulting in a very boring spectacle. Fair play to Batley though, they played the conditions and circumstances very well. RM will have to make changes though. After Sheffield he mentioned our support play was not where it should be and that was evident again today. How many line breaks did we make, ending up with nothing? Heaton, Fairbank, Tangata Ecclestone to name 4. I'd get Miles back asap, if he's not ready give Salty a go at full back, at least he links the line up fairly well. Gareth Moore was good again, Jonno has to come in at half back with him. On today's showing I'd give Murrell a few week off, really off the pace today. If RM wants to continue with Fairbank, R Moore, Tangata at loose, then I really don't see a place for Murrell at the minute unfortunately.

Agree with all of that. Don't think RM would ever play Murrell at loose forward and as much as I like Murrell he's not playing well enough to deserve a place in the team. Got to go with Johnston and Moore as half backs next week.
When Tangata made that 40 meter break upfield he had no support what so ever, if Tangata's making them kind of breaks and and has no support that tells you there's something wrong.

https://tombatley.wordpress.com/2016/02 ... win-again/ Manning and ambler your best forwards for me Wish dane would come home ha Good luck for rest of season see you at the mount for another great tie with fax

https://tombatley.wordpress.com/2016/02 ... win-again/ Manning and ambler your best forwards for me Wish dane would come home ha Good luck for rest of season see you at the mount for another great tie with fax

Interesting, tangata and Fairbank were the best yesterday for me.
We've had good tussles with Batley for years now and Dane has been our most consistent player for years.

Yesterday was less to do with stokes, and more to do with Fax not backing up, and switching off between 35 and 40 mins. Batley are well balanced championship team, and John Kear knows his onions.

Thoughts are murrell as been poor against Sheffield and today against batley. Needs to be dropped as the whole point of a big team is to keep players on there toes and to me he just is not playing how he is expected

Don't see why saxton is not.in the team he was one the better wingers. Think a few need swapping for next week

deeply disappointing and damaging performance.Seems to be a lot wrong at club at moment which is really annoying as the good work of last season seems to be falling apart.Pity i can't make the RM forum on wednesday as i'd like to hear his slant on things.Did think he was too loyal to the players at end of last season,we needed 4/5 quality players and needed to ship a few.That said opinion is divided on Gareth Moore but in my opinion he's been excellent.

Opinion shouldn't be divided on Gareth Moore. He's been by far our best player so far this season.

Without naming individual players for negative criticism - I believe there were a few players playing yesterday that really weren't up to the required standard.

It's absolutely crazy that Ben J. isn't getting in the team when he was our most dangerous attacking player last season and in the super 8s.

Aye.
We don't look anything like did towards the back end of last year, no fluency or flow as a unit yet, although there hasn't been many changes it looks like where there has been they are not just clicking just yet.

We all were hoping for a better start including RM and the players and we know they will be working towards sorting it, lets hope we can get the right team blend and back to some form asap because it will be harder this time round to do a repeat of last season run in.

You aren't the only ones. Leigh haven't looked anything like the team they were for much of last league season. (apart from 65 minutes yesterday, when they were really good - but then reverted to 'Qualifier' mode for the final 15!) Bradford also looked a shadow of last season's team for those 65 minutes - your forwards will really enjoy themselves against the Bulls!

But, as you ('Fax) especially know, it's all about getting it right for the back end of the season. At least, I hope it is, and that we both rise up the table a few places, before then!!

That's comforting.Think we are losing sight that it's a new season and things need time..i was struggling for any kind of positives yesterday.

I guess the defence was pretty good and they never really threatened from distance.

Whilst I think there's an overreaction to the defeat, and I chuckled at a p'take of Mick McCarthy on talk sport, about not getting carried away with a victory and not being too down about a defeat. We have an interesting conundrum a few have spotted, Johnno is not the first choice half back or full back for many, but he offers us something the rest of the team can't do, we used to have Penky making breaks from nowhere, towards the end of last year Johnno was doing just that, ducking under tackles, zipping round people wrong footed, and backing up every break, he may not be the biggest and will occasionally get run over by an 18 stone 6'3 forward, but his breaks are such a pressure release sometimes, and his speed to back up is something we lacked on Sunday. Personally I think we have to shuffle things round a bit and perhaps have an unorthodox set up, we have to find a space for his impact plays and line attacks. Gaz and Muzza while both competent are not going to make as many line breaks between them as Johnno does on his own, it's not a fault, and Gaz has played really well, and gets no criticism, we just have to find a spot on the bench at least for Johnno, perhaps he rotates 9, and or we take a look at young Brandon. All in all though it's nil desperandum.

Alan I had half a thought towards the Leigh situation and you will know better and more than me but how many changes have they had, intended and unintended.

A new coach.

Several of last years side move on.

A raft of new players come in.

Injuries in the key positions of 1,6,7 and 9 slots, namely McNally, Rydyard, Chase, Beswick, Higham etc.

Not exactly ideal ingredients for a fulling gelling side but the quality is there and everyone expects them to click at some time.

The Fax pack are a strong unit but they were matched by Batley and Sheffield.

As others have said Johnson is our most exciting player who can open teams up but how do you fit him in with the other two?

If you have him on the bench to bring on to rip it up as the other side tires it can leave you a bit light in the forwards.

It would mean on current selection that the bench would be Johnson, Maneely, Fairbank and Rich Moore.

Sunday had Ed Barber instead of Johnston so the bench was neither huge nor had a real threat in there, we have missed the impact of an inform Robbo and Brachek who did a job for us in the past in supporting the grunt of Luke, Mitch, Adam, Richard.

So much for the armchair coach and over to RM.

Awkward problem with Johnston - one I expect Neil Jukes to have with Brierley (or Chase/Ridyard) when (if?!) all are fit.

The irony at Leigh is that our pack is much bigger and better this season, and they have played well in all four games - no more so than the first 65 minutes at Bradford - but our backs haven't had the class to capitalise on their good work. As you say with your forwards, we never managed to subdue Batley though. In addition to those that you mentioned as being injured, both first choice centres, Tonga and Armstrong are still 2/3 weeks away from recovery, as is our first choice wing, Liam Kay. Our only other centre, Worthington, has had to play whilst injured, so we have struggled in the backs. Worryingly, virtually all the tries we have conceded, have been on our flanks. Higson, in particular, had an uncharacteristic nightmare on Sunday, probably being hugely responsible for the first three tries of Bradford's astonishing comeback. As for our apparent fadeout on Sunday, I wonder whether age played a part - Moimoi, Higham, Hock, and Hansen are all on the wrong side of 30. That said, their experience and skill are playing a significant part in the improvement of our pack.


Should make our upcoming game with you interesting - but then they always are!

we need jonno back in the team simple as we looked quite boring on sunday. In the final 20/30 mtrs we had no idea, our final little kicks to put batley under pressure maybe get a second set never happened jonnos kicks in that area are spot on we needed that just to get a foot hold anyway lets hope for our sake hes back in the team this weekend if not i fear another hard long day for fax