Just back and i know we lost but we have to put it into perspective, we have had our fair share of drop goal victories in finals and semi finals over the last 12 months, i suppose we have to be able to take a last minute defeat to lets not forget a very very good Leigh team.

first half we were absolutely brilliant i only counted one handling error, in the 2nd half it was always going to be difficult to keep that same standard in the 2nd half and credit to Leigh for coming back at us.

I have every confidence that if we can perform like this we can make a real impact in the play offs, we still have 3 years to tick that box again,

Up the Fax

Yes its always disapointing not to win but on the whole I thought it was a very solid performance against probably in the end a better team . Ellis and Ridyard were on the day the match turners.

The team can hold their heads up ,they gave it a good shot ;now back down to earth and no time for sulking because we need to have heads back on next week against an improving York side.

The Northern Rail cup final was a bonus to me after our early season form , now every match we win moves us into the top six which not many of us expected 6weeks ago.

Credit also goes to the fax fans today. To shake hands with the winning opposition fans is something all sports should applaud and certainly something Red Hall should promote as true rugby league spirit. That might not tick an official Super League box but in my view its probably more important in keeping Halifax a proud club for the RL to be associated with.

Totally disagree. Leigh were nothing special at all. Fax defended, mostly, very well and looked the greater threat in attack. leigh fell lucky purely down to the timing and nothing else. But, thats the luck of the draw.

sad

but proud of the lads

We could argue that the Ref pinned us down with some questionable decisions. I agree Bubba, we had it in the bag and a the odd brainfart undid us, particularly Nash.

Great efforts from Rob, Miles and big Sam who ran their blood to water.

Yes well done to both teams today and to two sets of fans ,we shared a box with a Hull fan two Gateshead fans and seven Leigh fans . I was gutted we lost but we shook hands and congratulated them as they not only won the trophy I think they have probably gone a long way in helping to save their club.I do believe the players were passing on their winning bonus so it would help the club out. So would think that the win money will take care of a few bills and as they are cup winners it may prompt some people to take the club on.
Best of all rugby league won today , it was a pleasure to share Blackpool with the Leigh fans pity the weather wasn`t kind but despite that I had a brilliant time.
Oh must make apologies to everyone who I said "I would see at the Claremount "turned out when I arrived there Sat morning I hadn`t booked in there at all but at The Cliffs . I`d never stayed there before either and it was ok
I would stay there again but was sorry to miss the Fax fans at the Claremont.

Over the 80 mins Halifax created more opportunities but a combination of unfortunate referring decisions and poor decision making cost us dearly.

Beswick was clearly held back when Rob made the break. MC said after the game that the ref saw it but played advantage because he thought we were going to score. I don't understand that at all. As soon as Rob was tackled, he should have awarded us the penalty and that would have been 2 points and game over.

However, we should not have subsequently run the 5th tackle from our own half in the last 10 mins, and the possession that gave Leigh ultimately lead to the equalising try (via another poor referring decision when the tackle count was wiped).

However, Leigh executed two plays very well for the last two tries, and that is what decided the match. They took their opportunities, we didn't. Great final, and we can't win them all.

I think Barrie McDermott should also apologise to James Haley next time he is on air. Haley (who I think was our MOM) sent out a beauty of a pass for Rob to score, and Bazza attributed it to Jacob Fairbank.

thought we would lose, nothing in it was there ? I would have been happy with 'golden point' Easy to be gracious in victory i know, but was that really 2nd v 7th in the table. I know leigh should have lost.............

Bit harsh on Barry Mac there in view of some of the gaffs other commentators mae

Commentators were really poor, just watched the rerun.
Thought Haley had a good game but Goddard needs to pass to his winger (may have made this point before, often)

i watched it too, including the last Leigh try, Jones maybe could have held back a little instead of going all out to stop the dropgoal, i dont think Ridyard would have been able to kick the drop goal running away from the sticks with a slippy ball.

all ifs and but's i think Jones struggled towards the end. lack of big match experiance, his decision making dissapeared in the last 10 mins

I wouldn't say Danny Jones lacks big game experience.

He played in the Championship 1 Grand Final for us a couple of years back and won the man of the match award in the Semi-Final and Grand Final. He won the European Nations cup last season with Wales including an away win in France.

Gutted for you guys today, tremendous effort from the fans and players. Cracking advertisement for Semi-Pro Rugby League.

Thought Worrincy was the best player on the field by a country mile! Surprised he didn't get MOM. Great game, great atmosphere, great way to show how entertaining and competitive the Championship is.

Seconded

I think both sides suffered from a bit of dodgey reffing. There forward passes and offsides from Fax all the way and some were so blatant it was mind boggling. The tug back I thought was a penalty but I also thought one of your tries was crossing as your man took the ball behind a player in forward motion within 5 mtrs of our defenders. To start to blame the ref is a bit soft. If you are 10mters back at the play the ball and you catch the first reciever from a good quick play the ball you are either offside or an x man. This happened more than once. I think the penalties ballanced themselves out for both sides. If we meet in the grand final I think it will be even better than yesterday and we could get 11 maybve 12 thousand fans on there. 12,000 of the best fans in RL. I knew that we were capable of coming back from that but also knew that you have some excellent players who could turn the screw. RL won the day yesterday and long may it continue whoever wins.

Good grief man where were you sat. I, and a few of the Halifax fans around us, got tired of shouting "forward" for the Leigh forward passes......

No ref blaming from me though. Its all about what the scores are and leigh outscored us 20 - 6 in the second half. Congratulations..

Thought Leigh just about shaded it on the day but what a magnificent effort from both teams, a real credit to the game. Both sets of fans created a brilliant atmosphere.



My only complaint was the Millward tactic of having the trainer on and off the field for the last 20 minutes giving instructions, poor sod must've been knackered. Nothing wrong it getting instructions out to the players in an honest way, but this guy was on the pitch like an extra man. It was like Alex Murphy had come back to haunt the game!

Dylan Nash head shot with 2 minutes left.

Criminal!

I havnt had the chance to watch the video back yet and was a bit tipsy but heres my initial thoughts.

I thought we played almost the perfect first 40 minutes in the first half but did get a tad sloppy in the second but this was probably due to the imense pressure Leigh were putting us under. For Halifax i thought the turning points were, when Leigh scored in the second half to make it 10-4 and we ended up with the ball from the re-start, i think Goddards knock on was crucial as a score then would have re-settled us. I think Beswicks 40/20 attempt was a massive blunder as well, great if it comes off but totally unessacary at that point in the game. The other one was the obstruction as i think 2 points there we probably go on and win the game with an 8 point advantage but the ref did what he thought was right so its a judgement call in the heat of the moment. Really great game though and some real edge of the seat stuff and thought all our players were superb and the try to win the game was a top draw move. I did think a draw was a fair result over the 80 but it wasnt to be but we showed once again we can compete with the best team in the league so more of that and a Grand Final appearence is a real possibility.

We can all play that game though with several high shots on Worrincy in the last 10 mins, Penky spear tackled in the 1st half and Beswick being pulled back while worrincy was on a break, Beswick being the closest player to the action as a support runner but yes bad calls by the officials. Nash's tackle was fine and around the shoulder but then the Leigh player fell into the tackle making it look like a high shot.

BUT
Congrats to Leigh was a great game.

Jones numerous brain farts probably had more relevense than Nash late high shot. Halifax played very well considering both halves were anonymous for large parts of the game, and as said previously decision making poor by them too. For a neutral though great game.

I didnt think Jonesy played that bad to be fair and i can only recall 2 incidents that he may have got wrong. The pass out wide to white who was immediately shoved into touch and the 2nd was when he charged the kick down and gave leigh the repeat set but even that im unsure could be called a 'Brainfart' as im not sure it was a drop goal attempt..either way i though the lads played well.

thought Greenwood was your best player on the day......closely followed by the BEST winger outside SL in Worrincy............. great game that deserved to go to golden point - but chuffed that we snatched it.

Good game, a couple of wrong decisions late on (in hindsight).
The ref was poor, too young, should be playing at some level, imo time for calland to be replaced by a coach
who can get the team fit and motivated without bringing his over rated and over paid mate in.

lets not forget Jones' brilliant pressure conversion which could have seen us home, and the fact that he kicked us to blackpool in the first place