Big game this one. Rivalry aside two teams evenly matched in the league. From our point of view this is a game that could really shoot us up the league with two games we should be pretty confident of winning in Barrow and Rochdale to come immediately afterwards.

The last few fixtues I have gone into this game without any hope of victory as Fax were so much stronger than ourselves, but have come away frustrated we haven't won as Fax have put in a sloppy performance and us even worse. Be interesting if both sides can out in good performances.

I feel we've always been beaten before we've set foot on the pitch as we've been mentally weak and haven't been able to handle Scott Murrell celebrating wildly over every knock-on. As I said on the Fev topic, I do believe we are mentally tough now and don't think that will effect us. Performances have been patchy to say the least, but we've been winning. Just like Fax, although it sounded like it clicked against London.

Fax will be favourites, home advantage and we've a short turn-around after an extra-time game. But if we could sneak a win it would be a massive 2 points.

Interestingly a Fax friend is convinced that Halifax without Murrell are a faster, slicker proposition.

After our struggle against Fev and them taking London out I have to go with home advantage and say we lose this...

Especially with our own madly celebrating, wind up artist now on the injury list...

Easy Halifax win.

Agree with all the above.

Hopefully Fax have blown their load with the win against London and we catch them cold. However I can see Fax winning at a canter unfortunatley! Hopefully not though!

We're second favourites, definitely, but who knows? It'll be a lovely pint (or so) in the three pigs, so it will be a nice day out - win or lose.

i think the extra 3 days rest our squad have had will be a telling factor. although expecting it to only be a one score game either way - hoping there's a big crowd and decent atmosphere

I’m looking forward to it but it seems as though Fax have got their act together after some pretty ordinary performances. It depends if they continue like that with their quicker players in the middle. When I went to their game versus Leigh their defence didn’t look great but they were good enough to win without ever looking in real danger. They scored without too much difficulty whereas we had to capitalise on mistakes to get the win.

If we actually try to play rugby before the 65th minute we should give them a really good game but if it’s up the jumper stuff then Fax by 12.

We certainly have enough firepower to trouble Halifax. My worry is the slow starts. It was almost a blowout yesterday and and as slow start against Fax at Fax won't be reversible.

Strongest team out, no messing about with positions. Get in the game from the kick off.

Oh, and I hope we get Fax in the next round of the cup. Big crowd, pay day for two local sides

Even stevens for mine. Our squad depth will help us out over the Easter period for sure. I'm going Bulls by 4.

God I hope not. We'll end up playing them 3ntimes in the space of 5 weeks. It will be a difficult sell.

Hard to predict which way this will go. Fax have put in one good performance this season and that was last Thursday when we had 7 or 8 regular first team players missing so it will be interesting to see how many of those that are available come straight back in to the team. Expectations were really high before the season started and ironically it were the Bradford game that showed we were quite a way off the pace that we probably should have been at and it has not got much better since then. I would take any win but it really would not be a surprise if we lost this one if we go back to tried and trusted.

GFB. Fax have actually put in two good 80 minute performances this season to date. The London game as you state, plus the Dewsbury match which resulted in a 26v0 win. Interestingly, in neither of those matches did we use a loan/dr player.

Ha. Love it.

Within the spcece of 5 weeks ill get to see us whoop Halifax twice, beat L****s and have a weeks holiday in Toronto.
What a time to be alive!!

Scott Murrell not named in Halifax's 19. That's got to be a boost for the Bulls.

Dane Chisholm not named in our 19. Got to be a boost for Fax

Not sure, there are some fax fans who think they play better without him.

Yeah have a look at the Fax board, many think Murrell is a spent force.

Good! He always plays well when we play them.

I'm happy Murrells not playing. As you say he always has a stormer against us and while he won't do anything individually brilliant, he makes everyone else better around him. He rises in these big games (see Fev at Blackpool last year)

One thing you can't criticise about us this year is our defence (except against Fev) it looks like Fax will have Ben White (from Swinton) & James Woodburn-Hall at 6&7. If we can't start off well and keep them out, the longer the game goes on the more they may start to panic and throw passes that aren't on. That HB pairing doesn't frighten me in all honesty.

Queue to have egg on my face and both score blinding long range tries!

I think both teams are better at defending than attack so I expect it to be a low scoring game.

Scott is a legend at Fax but barring one game he really hasn't done it this season. Saying that, if he wasn't injured I would expect Marshall would have picked him. We'll see what the day brings. Up The Fax!

[/u

Erm.... Fax have the 4th worst defence in the league

19 Man Squad

Callum Bustin
Steve Crossley
Connor Farrell
David Foggin-Johnston
Dalton Grant
Sam Hallas
Evan Hodgson
Liam Kirk
Jordan Lilley
Rowan Milnes
Elliot Minchella
Ross Oakes
Ross Peltier
Brandon Pickersgill
Ethan Ryan
Matthew Storton
Jake Webster
Matty Wildie
Mikey Wood