That was our best performance of the season so far in the first half, tremendous and we started off in the second half well but got bogged down ans went back to one man drives until Tiger got that try, we then should have won it at 18-8 but stupidly threw a pass that was risky and gave them their 2nd try when we just needed to put pressure on Batley and keep them in their own half, why?
Our kicking game was good but what does Thacks offer, we went down hill when he came on. Scott Murrell needs to lose some weight as we need him for 80 minutes!
Batley turned the screw when they needed to after that lucky break when we gave them the ball although they got lots of possession when we tried to get the ball and knocked on twice, it could have been so different!
Fair result though I think we still have room for improvement, as others are saying our centres and hookers are our weak point.

Yep i think we are all in agreement. Need some more creativity!! When is Craig Cook going to be fit? I completely agree on Casey and Thackeray, what do they bring to the team? The only time i see Casey is when he comes on the pitch and again when he goes off. Forwards were pretty solid but we need a centre and half back. We aren't that far away from being a good side. Im glad Barlow is back, yes he can give stupid penalties away but even in his first game back yesterday he looks like the most likely to break the line. How good is Fieldhouse at the back? He just doesn't drop a thing.

Very frustrating evening, i dont think i have been that annoyed after a game in a long time but heyho at least we are still unbeaten.

harrison said before the game that barlow was in the team to do a job. he certainly did his job. took ball up well and wond up the batley players which should have resulted in one sent off and another binned. he gave away a silly penalty for pushing knees in face of player getting up after tackle but when batley player did that at end of first half and robinson took exception to it he had penalty awarded against him. good game but fax threw it away and if ref had balls it would have been very differant against 11 men for 10 mins and 12 for rest of game.

murrell went off injured and then fax made poor decisions. also says he lost a few teeth due to the high shot in first half.

My twopenneth - Handforth played really well, and I agree him and Murrell play really well together. That try by Handforth, cheeky but loved it.

Thacks errr.... well.... doesn't work for me.

Barlow, waste of space so far this year.

Tyrer, unlucky is the best word I am looking for, tackled well but didn't quite get the rub of the green in regards to passes.

Worrincy, think folk are being harsh, ran well and hard - didn't stop trying.

Congrats to Adam Robinson, that was his 150th pro game too!

Tonks one handed ball collection like a full back was brill but he was unlucky with the try that went over him while he was trying to get up.

Hats off to Batley and Campbell for that try. Must of hurt!

What a great game. First half played at fanastic pace. end to end, mostly due to Murrels superb kicking. We finally played a game with the necessary intensity, until the last ten minutes unfortunately. Batley matched us, in fact I thought they ouplayed us at times but our line defence was superb with everyone working overtime. There must be a lot of acheing bodies this morning. All the forwards were superb. Handforth showed how he can play given a platform by his forwards. Worrincy looked mean and keen with one suoprb trysaver tackle early on. Sherriffe sound (nearly) but has lost a yard. Centres still work in progress (as KH likes to say) but still we can`t seem to give em half a yard start. i thought our D had given us the points but credit to Batley a super breakaway try finsished with real pace by their winger. Even then it took the hardest pass of all to defend ( poor one on the ground) to finally split us open. I think if it had gone to hand we would have defended that one too. Can`t wait for next week now. Enthusiasm restored. Who needs Sooper League.

Won't go into the game but concerning the half-backs, we need to keep Murrell and Handforth partnered. As someone said earlier last night for Handforth looked back to his old self, controlled the game and didn't go wandering. And Murrell is an allround class act! I stated ages ago we should maybe put Thacks at 13 and let him do his business instead of placing the playmaking role on his shoulders because he's not that effective in that role.

Think that is a very fair and honest post.
Good luck to you except when we play you at the shay !!!!

KH rates Casey and you may have picked up on the Kevin Sinfield comparison.

We have posted about options in the side and the hooking role is one area were we need some contrast and different style as with the halves and centres.

In recent years several sides have had a good strong distributer and then a good pacey runner in that position.

One example would be Cunningham and Roby at Saints and Leeds, Wigan, Bradford have had this type of set up.
This variety is constantly asking question of the opposing defence and if possible that's what we need.

Ashall looked a lot better player when he first came because he was interchanged with Penky, now he is too predicatable as an invidual which probably makes him look worse than he has been and could be if we could get the right partner.

This post is a perfect summary of the match. Although it's always annoying to concede in the last seconds irrespective of whether or not we were better or not, the contest was very evenly matched and a draw a fair result. And as for not keeping it tight when we were 18-8 up ................... I remember a certain amount of criticism after the Sheffield match at Fax not opening up more near the end to deprive the Eagles of a bonus point. Something tells me there would be certain posters on here who would be firing the same criticism had we closed up at a 10 point lead last night. You just can't win sometimes .............

Plenty to be positive about, it was a good game and a draw at Batley isn't a bad result at all. Id hope we beat them at our place though.
Its still early days, and definitely a bit soon for people to be writing players off, when pitches dry up and the sun is shining i think sides will struggle to contain our pack.
We still have potentially Cook, Nanyn and Morrison to come back into that side and a few current players that can improve and we know can play better, and were still unbeaten and doing the ugly work sufficiently well enough to be optimistic that when they click we'll start putting sides away.

Just think with our pack what we could do with a Menzie Yere type player in the centres.

Ok, I'm sure Thacks himself is frustrated that he isn't firing on all cylinders, but have you seen anyone else who a) times it so well and b) chases so hard behind an attacking kick.

Miles only dropped the ball when we scored because Thacks was bearing down on him.

Agree that he needs to (re)develop his game to fit in and improve his passing quality, but you really can't fault him for enthusiasm.

I might be in the minority but Thacks will have his part to play just has he did in helping us to win at Blackpool and in other games as well.

In any case what happened last year is irrelevant it's what happens this year that counts.

Tiger took a lot of flack even up untill recently and yet he is in mosts peoples man of the match choices in one place or another now.

Thacks, if he is going to be a running half then that's what he needs to do and take the line on more, for that he needs quicker play the balls and quicker pitches.

The play the ball is down to the players winning the collision and getting to or staying on their feet and forcing the ref's hand, the pitches will dry out and then we will be able to see how it turns out.

We are 5 games into the season and have only just left February behind and there was a big improvment on Thursday and still a lot more to come, we'll get there.

Well said faxcar. Its 5 games in and we are still unbeaten and not totally firing yet. Personally I think Tiger and Murrell are going to drive this team forward in the weeks to come(Murrells kicking was best I have seen by a Halifax player at Batley) and Thacks won't get going until ground get's harder. He is still elusive around the opposition try line and will get a few crucial tries before the end of the season. Its actually in the middle of the park where we look tame on attack.That is also taking out our wingers talent as they simply are not getting put away by a making a break or simply drawing the man and pasing. Hope Nanyn can make a difference and stay fit.Be interesting to revist this post at the end of the season!

Tyler out time to bring in the human wrecking machine Nanyn

I think folks should get off Handforth & Thackery's backs, they are both decent quality players & always have been. I haven't seen thursdays game yet, I've only played back until Murrell was attacked by Walton, but from the games i've seen this season, any problems we have going forwards aren't the fault of our half backs in my opinion. Handforth will be a better player without Penky running up his own backside this season & Murrell is a brilliant player at this standard so I expect more teams to take Kear's old fashioned tactics of getting his hitmen to attempt to knock his head off & stop our creativity. Thacks's defence was criticised in an earlier post with regards to playing him at hooker, well you just watch who is almost always the first man when when we've kicked downfield to make a tackle, I guarantee he'll nearly always be there. The physical efforts & intensities of defending around the play the ball isn't exactly where i'd want to stick him & use all his gas up when he's clearly one of our best strike players & supporter of the runner. Ask yourselves why they are sent to defend out at centre, Some folks don't read the game properly who post on here !!!
As a front rower for most of my playing career i learned that your best half backs need good protection if they are to be allowed to be creative with the ball. Our pack in the main will give this & Thacks will burn sides on the drier, firmer tracks for sure & open sides up for our three-quarters.
Once again, i cannot believe the negativity amongst some of our support.

Part Quote.
"well you just watch who is almost always the first man when when we've kicked downfield to make a tackle."

He did it again this week Col, just watch when Tyrer looses the ball and knocks it into Blackys hands who breaks up field and feeds it to Potter.

Who is the only Fax player to get back and force him wide enough so they miss the kick, which as it turned out got us the draw.

Back to the game as a whole and having watched it again and some time to reflect.

The first half we dominated field position and the game for long peroids.

Second half was more even and a bit scrappier but we still looked strong for the whole game considering the short turn around from Sunday.

Conclusion, we were 10 points up with just minutes to play against Batley on their own turf, not many sides will be in that position.

We were one attacking set (when we through out that long pass) and they intercepted from being home and dry, if we had kept possession and gone in again they wouldn't have even got a BP.

We were one exit set and kick (when Brachek knocked on on the 4 th tackle) in the dying minutes from being home and dry.

Again not a bad effort at the Dogs.

A couple of lapses and it cost us and credit to Batley when they got a lifeline they took it.

He may be the first there but he very rarely effects the tackle. It may be harsh but he would make Graham Holroyd look like Stephen Holgate. He needs a lot of work defensively.

As for the hooker position, defending never affected Penky and Rowley 2 of the best defensive and attacking players that have graced the hooking role over the years.

It is slow ball that is affecting our attacking play, it just dosnt go through the hookers and halfs hands quick enough or accurately enough.

Living the dream: "Well said faxcar. Its 5 games in and we are still unbeaten and not totally firing yet. Personally I think Tiger and Murrell are going to drive this team forward in the weeks to come(Murrells kicking was best I have seen by a Halifax player at Batley) and Thacks won't get going until ground get's harder. He is still elusive around the opposition try line and will get a few crucial tries before the end of the season. Its actually in the middle of the park where we look tame on attack.That is also taking out our wingers talent as they simply are not getting put away by a Centre making a break or simply drawing the man and pasing. Hope Nanyn can make a difference and stay fit.Be interesting to revist this post at the end of the season!"

I think that good as Murrells kicking was it was mainly for first half .Holroyd`s display of tactical kicking against i think Widnes in driving rain at the Shay a few seasons back was the most destructive and decisive i have ever seen.

someone commented here saying what does thacks bring to our game. well i seem to think he brought 20 tries to our game last year and was leading try scorer. anyone who gets 20 in a season is doing something right to me.

Handforth was still getting stick on Thursday from some.one idiot even said "he is the worst player to pull on a fax shirt".he is now showing his class as he has this season got someone alongside who can take some pressure off him.

The turnaround in Handforth's fortune at Fax make me ponder. Did we get rid of Neirinxx and Seu Seu too quickly?

No. Both useless. Seu seu could not break a paper bag

Handforth got in Championship weekly dream team this week! (Only Fax player in it) After 40+ years of watching Fax I have seen a lot worse put on a Fax shirt!
Sing out loud and SUPPORT your team!