18 penalties given today. We got 6 of them.

Solid effort from everyone today. Referee was very one sided and a lot of handling errors for both teams but not surprising given the conditions.

Thought Gale, Sammut and Kearney were brilliant, ran the show. Heath looked and Scruton looked to be getting back to his old self.

Finally it was a welcome sight to see Whitehead back, switched from second row to centre well in the absence of Purtell.

12-6 to cas I believe. Was 10-3 early in 2nd half.

Anyone questioning commitment of players only had to see looks on their faces at end to know how much win meant to them. Showed real pride in shirt. Superb defensive effort today and scoreline doesn't really reflect how good attack was. At least 3 tries stopped inches short. Koppy and burgess both looked more aggressive and their games benefited. Whitehead was a man possessed at times and gale and Lear both put in some superb try saving tackles. Overall a big improvement on last week. Need to keep it going now.

I really hope Purtell, Lulia and Donaldson are all ok for next week so we can really give it a go agains the pies.

Great determination to grind out a win in poor conditions.

If I'm honest we never looked like losing it as we managed everything Castleford threw at us. Every time Cas took the ball up it was Chase making the play 5 minutes before the rest of the Cas team knew what was going on. Millward mentioned in his post-match interview that Cas hadn't practised much this week with the ball in hand and it really showed today.

Bradford's kick/chase was spot on and our goal line defence was superb. 110% commitment from 1-17 in red, amber and black today. If we are going to struggle this season these are the games we need to be winning if we want to achieve a top 8 finish.

Is there any news on the injuries?

Been told Donaldson is looking at 10 weeks out. Purtell should be ok fir next week. How accurate that is remains to be seen. Suspect given Lulia is coming back from a hamstring injury it may been a tactical decision not to risk him on a heavy pitch today. Heard a rumour manase may be ok for next week too.

I get the feeling that had this fixture been played at the height of summer, Castleford would have won this on the back of dominating territory and possession and coupled with our indiscipline.

The chances that Castleford squandered off the top of my head were:

Adam Milner's kick on the last 5m out from the Bradford try line that hit the post and went dead.

Milner then going close to scoring from Rangi Chase's kick which Jason Crookes surprisingly left.

Stuart Jones being stopped inches from the line by some athletic Bradford Bulls goal line defence.

Nathan Massey losing the ball on the tackle three inside the Bradford 10m after going 25m through the middle of our pack.

Josh Griffin agonisingly juggling the ball and then losing it over the line from another Rangi Chase kick.

Same goes for the Bulls, we'd have posted more points also. We went close numerous times too.

True.

Just saw the tries and conditions.. The Owen try was off a massive forward pass.

Dixie where did you see the try?

Having seen the highlights, Kearney was offside for Sammut's try and Owen's try at the end was a forward pass. So one incorrect decision each I'd say.

Where's the highlights????

They were on the Sky Sports summary show, was on at 9:30.

Ah damn, well they may put them up on SLTV tomorrow so I can watch them in school

If not looks like Super League Show.

RED ALERT MODS! THis Forum member has been abducted and his personality altered from pessimistic to optimistic!

If Lulia's fit i'd put him in and walker on bench in donnos place, if he needs another week then same as today but with addy or joseph in for donno.

The biggest positives from today for me are.

1. Some notable team spirit and pride.
2. The backbone to absorb alot of possession and pressure on our line without conceeding.
3. Decent halves!! With a good kicking game (we'll forget about the failed touch finding attempt!!)
4. Good kick chase.
5. Good defensive control of the ruck.
6. Effective and controlled exit sets.
7. A pack that got stuck in.
8. We appeared around 30% fitter than Castleford



Negatives.

1. Inability to build any sort of defensive pressure or link back to back sets.
2. Constantly letting them off the hook with penalties, and consequently gifting them good field position.
3. Still think our last tackle attacking options need more work.

We need to sort out the negatives ASAP. If we gift a better team that much field position and possession we'll definitely be in trouble!!

Overall. A step in the right direction! Think Wigan next week will give us a better idea where we are tho.

Over the last few years, the inability to back up decent performances has lead to our demise and frustration amongst the fans. The Wigan game is a massive test for me to see if we actually have moved on this season

It felt great to watch that performance yesterday especially the defence, the pride in the shirt and the ability to control the game for the full 80. I am looking forward to this Season again (was in pre-season prior to going to Hull, wasn't after Hull / Cats games !)

Listening on the radio was brilliant yesterday. Appalling conditions, the best player on the pitch on the other side, the commentators using words like gritty, determined, about our defence and the other team getting nowhere.

It was almost like following Bradford.

Seriously enormous result with the Pies coming next week off the back of beating Leeds and Wire on the horizon.