I can understand why Lowes is giving Siejka every chance to settle in. If he ends up being discarded it outs helluva lot of pressure on Gaskell. Stop Gaskell stop Bradford will become the opposition mantra. I think he will persevere with him for a few more games before it becomes decision time.

I actually thought we looked to be up for the game at the start, we tackled very aggressively in the opening 10 mins. But then we had that long period of pressure in their 20m where we lacked creativity, seemed to think that if we just battered away they would fold. When they held out we completely lost our way.

It certainly brought back memories of 1997

And an attendance better than Huddersfield v Salford in Super League!

I didnt even think Gaskell was playing in the first half, worst ive seen him play in that first half since the middle of last season - dont know if thats due to them closing him down

But it was like he took a long hard look in the mirror at HT and had a word with himself as he controlled the game in the 2nd half.

Secondly - how did Adam O'Brien not get MOM last night !!!

Good job most of these other teams are part time and we can count on them running out of fuel. On the strength of that performance I can't see where we get the extra needed to beat full time SL teams. If more teams go full time then I could cope with staying in the Championship and it really needs more to go full time. Last night demonstrated that perfectly. I think that Siejka needs more time. Jimmy likes him taking the line on but he needs better decision making as to what next. Only game time will give him that and enough confidence in the strengths of other players. I think he will look better on dryer grounds....well I hope so.

Still haven't worked out what happened last night.

Clearly Fax came fired up for a cup final, their try celebrations were unbelievable for a league game, derby or not. They put everything into that first half and out muscled us for a fact, but their decision to save no energy at all for the second half [surely they didn't think the game finished at half time? was rank bad tactics. Still don't know if we were underpowered in that first 40 or just managed our energy better. We were definitely out enthused.

We need these games against teams with a point to prove though, to keep us honest and give some intensity to these qualification league games. We gain nothing from running in points for fun and hopefully we can reap the benefit against the SL teams in the middle 8s.

Does anyone else believe that it must be a lot harder than people think to play towards the away end? In the last couple of weeks when the conditions have been poor every team seems to have really struggled to make any metres when playing in that direction?

Me and my dad said at half time that we thought that was the case and that we were sure in the second half we'd blow them away and they wouldn't score any points. Low and behold it happened, apart from one try which came from a stupid mistake by us.

Taking that into account I think we did very well to defend like we did and limit them to just 2 scores in the first half, especially with a man in the bin.

In the second half Halifax looked just like we did in the first. Struggled to make any ground, when they did get near our try line they knocked on and made stupid decisions.

Our decision making in the first half was awful. 3 times on the last tackle Seijka thought he could dodge a tackler and then get a kick in but then ran out of space and had to pass to someone else to then put in a rubbish kick. I was glad Baille got brought on because the combination of Henry and Ulugia together on that edge was dire.

Totally agree about Sieijka, but also don't understand why Adam Henry is keeping his place - lost count of the number of times he's dropped the ball over the last few matches. I know he's scored in the last two games, but still don't think he's an asset overall.

To be fair to Adam Henry the only times he dropped the ball tonight was from shocking passes thrown to him,

My issue on that wing is Ulugia - the guy has pace and runs the ball in hard, but doesnt do much else !!

Uaisele will get his chance monday i reckon and will link up well with Henry

Adam Henry dropped it far more than you seem to think he did. He dropped the ball from dummy half in the first 40 which lead to their second try. He dropped it again in the first half - albeit from a ridiculous pass straight from a scrum - which lead to the Fax drop goal.
He then dropped it again in the second half after driving the ball in, but thankfully the Fax players were just as wasteful with possession as we were by this point.
As far as I can tell, Ulugia only dropped that kick in the first 40 which he should not have tried to catch on the full. Halifax scored their first try from the resulting set on our line.

I see a lot of similarities in the performances of Henry and Ulugia. Both seem to have issues with ball retention, but at the same time they run the ball back with real pace and power. It would be very interesting to see someone like Ulugia with a bit of space in front of him, he looks like he can really shift.
Adam Henry frustrates me at times but he took his try very well last night, and scored two against Workington last week. If they can sort his hands out, I'd have him in the side in front of Baile who is offering absolutely nothing right now.

This is probably the worst post I have yet to read on last nights game. Fitness was not the difference in the game and we were still competing right till the end and still creating chances. Bradford just had that extra bit of class and where as in the first half our completion rate was very high we made a lot of unforced errors in the second half and ended up running at 50%.

As for the try celebrations, give me a break, its called team spirit and we were celebrating tries like that when we were 40 points up at Barrow.

Although last year for Fax the last person in to the huddle to celebrate a try had to make a contribution to the "mad Monday" kitty. I assume you haven't continued that this year?

I liked Fax's try celebrations. Proves they have excellent team spirit and really want to win.
We were diving in and just as enthusiastic when Pitts went over. "Cup final" comments are petty.

On the game, we played like we have for the last 3 games. Going through the motions, thinking we'll just run through when fax tire. We weren't playing to a game plan and playing very dumb rugby.

Second half we were much better. Jimmys half time team talk were obviously ringing in the ears. We were more composed and went back to basics, rolled our sleeves up, ran hard and straight. That then allowed Gaskell to stamp his authority on the game. Our kicking game improved too.

Also think we're massively missing Mullaney.

Don't worry GFB, Us Leythers have the same problem with these men. Their full of excuses.

The great thing was that the ref was neutral and didn't seem to favour either team. Can't beat a proper Yorkshire derby match and another on Monday.

Jesus, Cokey is back, nowt else to do?

thought it was fair comment to be honest.

I never said fitness was "[ithe[/i difference" between the sides, though it will inevitably play a part between pros and semi pros. What I said was, that Halifax's game management, their energy conservation - or lack of - when they ran around in the first half like there was no tomorrow, or not even a second half, was certainly a major factor for me. You are free to disagree, of course and just say we were lazy sods - which, again may be true to some extent.

They didn't run around in the second half in quite the same way though, and made unforced errors, I think largely through fatigue, - it's what tired bodies do, and maybe we upped the ante a bit too, either way round Fax offered very little in the second period other than some stiff rearguard resistance, not sure what our excuse for unforced errors was, maybe trying to push unlikely passes and taking unnecessary chances...

Fair play to Fax. They played well imo, and certainly gave the impression of wanting it more and deserved their celebrations, of which I offered no direct criticism by the way, merely that it suggested they were maybe a tad overhyped for the game. That said, it showed how much the match meant to them and it certainly appeared to mean more to to Fax than it did to us in the first half.

Come on Bets'y, you know it wouldn't be the same without 'em. And, at least they have a sense of humour, not like many of that lot from superdooper league...

Luv it.

I was looking at Henry's performance over the last few games, not just last night. Haven't get a tally, but came away from each game thinking he had dropped a lot

As I can't find a 'like' button, just liking this way. Agree our kicking game was bad in the first half. Fax seemed to have 20 yards on us

A poor first half by Bradford, we should be expecting improvement every week, but i am struggling to see where it is. At the start of the season we were told that all the clubs would want to beat Bradford but we are up to the challenge, clearly, we weren't in the first half. If the team thought this league would be a bit hard at times but we can easily go top 4 then they have had a rude awakening first at Batley now yesterday.
We won't have an exhaustible supply of "get out of jail cards" we need to start improving now, looking forward to the CC with Hull....no chance unless a marked improvement is takes place.
Leigh have a killer instinct and are putting some big scores against some of the opposition we should be doing the same.

Fax will be more than up for it at Blackpool and will believe they can win, We had better be ready for a tough match.

COYB

We haven't put together an 80 minute performance this season, and last night was a particularly poor instance as we really only played for 30-35 minutes.

Somehow Jimmy has got to get it into the players heads that we can't really just expect teams to roll over. Its disrespectful to them, and simply won't prepare us for the Middle 8's later in the season.

Fair play to Halifax, they played very well last night and are clearly going to be right in the mix for the Top 4. Hope they can give Wakefield a bloody nose in the Cup as well!

Remember this is just the qualifying league for the main event. Business end is a bit away yet and poor form or not, we're currently on course.

I know what you mean, but I see it a different way.

First, Leigh may be the best team the Championship or indeed the world has ever seen, or they may have peaked too soon. It is rare for a team to be on top of its game for a full season plus playoffs is all I'll say.

Second, the big improvement on recent seasons, above any others, is that we end up winning games. We have sort of reversed our standard throw-away-a-winning-position late-collapse mentality.

Third, all we need to do at this point is chalk up wins. They don't have to be pretty. It is fair to say if we play like we played in the first half etc however the point is, games never last just one half and it doesn't really matter in the great scheme of things if you had a gash first half - as long as you grind out the win.

Fourth, we have a fledglig suqad and even Jimmy can't know his best combinations yet, as for the players, you have to take into account that a few weeks ago many of them were strangers. Only months and months of playing and training will gradually mould those understandings that the best teams have.

There is a helluva lot of scope for improvement in this team and squad and I suppose it is nice to be able to complain despite having won every game bar our hari kari at Leigh. The effort and the desire to win is there for all to see.