Potentially niggly and scrappy game, going to need a decent ref. Half the team injured or suspended. Gonna be very tough one.

We have to keep an eye on that horrible s**t Stack. He got Taufua sent off last year and Doro suspended this year. I hope we have a strong ref this time who will not tollerate his interfering.

We know what game it's gonna be and their "tactics" we just have to rise above it. Big game this, it's one of the more difficult fixtures we've got over the next month so if we can get 2 points it will put us in a good position. We can't afford to have a hangover from Widnes.

Championship
Barrow Raiders v Bradford Bulls
04th August, KO: 15:00
Referee: J. Stack
Reserve Referee: J. Hughes
Touch Judge 1: I. Arnold
Touch Judge 2: L. O'brien
Time Keeper: B. Hartle

If the RFL match centre squad is right, Stack isn't playing, neither is Ryan Johnson. So that's a boost to us and hopefully a less grubby match.

Bulls name 20 man squad:

Appo, Balback, Bayliss, Davies, Fishwick, Fulton, Gill, Hallas, Holmes, Lehmann, Lilley, Mason, Okoro, Okunbor, Ott, Pele, Peposhi, Souter, Sammut.

Holmes
Lehmann
Smith
Gill
Okunbor
Sammut
Lilley
Bayliss
Souter
Pele
Davies
Fulton
Hallas
---
Ott
Appo
Okoro
Peposhi
18th Mason

Makin and Franco arrive on loan and I assume we can add one of them to the 20 man squad for Sunday?

I thought we had Scurr back this weekend but looks like he is injured now. It never ends!

Didnt go through in time to play sunday according to Mick

I’m surprised at Makin to be honest. I thought he would have been on the usual loan for two weeks then it rolls weekly. Do loans prior to deadline day mean they literally do not have a recall option and it is an actual season (rest of) long loan therefore needing new paperwork?

Hopefully

Smash and grab required for this one - just win the game by whatever means. It'll be slow, it'll be grubby, it'll be ugly but just make sure we get a win.

3rd spot looks likely to be the highest we can realistically finish now, but we need a strong finish and pick up a few wins when we aren't at full strength. Big test tomorrow.

This fixture last season saw us get pumped 46-12 and was the end of the Mark Dunning experiment. Jarrod Sammut pulled the strings for Barrow that afternoon. Hopefully he can do the same for us today!

Absolute bottlejobs.

Anybody with any sense would have gone for a 1 pointer 15 minutes before the end. Dumb dumb play.

The game in the a nutshell. I know we have an absolute mountain of injuries but we all assumed there was enough quality out there today to get the job done especially being 24-12 up with 15 mins remaining

Another bad day at the office with our so called ‘leaders’ going missing again. Am I the only one who feels the wheels are about to come off?

Point dropped. Lots of players back next week so if EoC wants to ring the changes due to poor performance then he can do. I hope he does. Some of those players were doing some stupid stuff

That result is going to be another one that we will look back on at the end of the season and realise how costly it was.

Earlier in the season I genuinely thought EOC had a group he could mould into a side that might have an outside chance in a Championship GF. We had a determination in our defence that allowed us to make a few errors or concede some penalties. Not good enough, EOC has a job on his hands getting a grip on things before the season is all but over.

Spot on....the sensible call would have been the one pointer, but no. Poor game management once again.

Halfbacks aren't up to it. Can't fault Lilley's effort but he's not a leader. This was spotted yonks ago when he was shunted to be impact hooker where he's better IMO. Recruiting 37 year old Sammut who isn't a leader either shows where we are.

I'm not blaming him for the result, as it's an easy scapegoat, and it was extremely difficult conditions today, but Lilleys average Goal-kicking quality really is harming us.

2/5 today.
4/7 against York (was 3/6 until our last try which is why York sniffed a comeback)
The missed penalty in front of the posts against Batley.

He was always the backup kicker when we had players like Patton and Brough who were better at goalkicking. Ideally we'd have someone else doing the job. The main reason we're losing games or failing to win isn't really down to the goalkicking. It's down to playing dumb football.

Keyes coming in will improve things a bit provided he stays fit. That's next year though.

Isn’t Lilley kicking at 80%? If so I’d say that is more than acceptable?

I note Ryan Shaw who I would suggest is as good as anyone in the league at converting also kicked 2 from 5 on his home ground so it sounds conditions weren’t great?

It's around 75% I think. Even lower if you exclude penalties. I'm absolutely not blaming him for the result. It's more of an observation. As Bullseye said our dumb play and lack of game management is to blame and conditions were very poor for a kicker. But there's no question it's hurting us. Unfortunately we're stuck until Keyes comes in next year.