Yes that's my stand out memory of shivering too.

Was that the game where Paul Medley put on, what I still feel is the biggest, most humongous crash tackle I've ever witnessed, on I think (Paul) Myler, then of Widnes? Both the ball and Myler went up into the air but came down seperately sometime later...

I'll give Myler his due, he was a tough old cookie, and after a quick wipe down he just walked into the scrum, but it was a great day to watch and an incident which made me glad I was spectating and not playing...

Bulls lead 6-0 at halftime after a mass brawl sees Flanagan and Brown sent to the bin for 10 mins. Awesome last ditch defence from the Bulls in the first half. Great game so far!

Well Batley played better than bulls first half and Batley coming down hill second half.

What a game!

Bradford take the spoils.

As no-one seems to want to give the score it was Batley 12 Bulls 14.

Well a good win in a tight and tough game, as they've all been so far. But full credit to the lads for grinding out a victory

As I said previously, this league hasn't really moved on from our last time round it. I honestly think we have a very good chance of making the play-offs this year

We possibly played Widnes at VP in 94, the game that I'm referring to however was Northern Vs Bulls. We were sat at the stand behind the dugouts, regards right next to the dug outs. I've never been as cold in my life, I thought my feet were about to drop off.

Mr Dancing on Ice purposely stamped on our ex GB Backrowers hand. He had a few words to say as he came off, best described as Colourful. Hint. The colour want white.

Ah the old Northern v Bulls games.
I remember them well!!!

Have we had somebody sin binned in every 'friendly' game we've played so far this off season?

Looked a good following from video I saw at the end. Anyone know the attendance?

Dammit. Northern Vs

Leeds

A few people on Twitter stating that there were over 3000 there today. Not had it officially confirmed by either club yet. Great atmosphere. Only negative is the Gibson injury in the first few minutes and Minchella picking up a slight knock according to JK's post-match comments.

Aaron Bower has tweeted the attendance as 2,278

Defence was top from both sides today, especially the Bulls who defended at least 6 repeat sets on their line in the first half. Our first try we didn't deserve and Batley's first try was brainless from our lads. I can't forgive conceding a bargeover try in the opening minutes of a half.

All in all, a very entertaining game today. We need to work on our attacking plays though - I think we looked a bit blunt in stages and lacking a bit of movement. I don't think Milnes and Lilley belong together on today's showing really. Lilley's defence by the way was great.

I agree, both halves did plenty of defensive work which probably sapped a lot of energy whilst we were attacking. It would have been good to have had Chisholm or Keyes come on during the second half to change things up a bit.

What a cracking game today, really enjoyed it. Anyone know how Ashley Gibson is?,it didn't look good with his arm in a sling.

Ah, how I've missed Batley games were the official attendance seems much lower than what it appeared to those in the stadium

Haha, my thoughts exactly.

Batley's 'official' attendances usually come in around 60% of the actual number of people there...

Ah OK!

So you are 1. A professional crowd counter and 2. Calling the Batley club cheats!

For what it's worth, as a spectator who attends Mount Pleasant every match, the published figure looked about right to me!

I seem to remember an incident at Batley not so long ago when the Bulls played there, when people called shenanigans after the attendance was announced, only for the chairman to later come out and say it was something different, blaming the original inaccurate number on the press for wanting a figure before they'd had chance to count.

To be fair, I always thought the attendances at Odsal went the other way. Announcing an official attendance that always seemed higher to me than what I could see. I never quite got the logic of doing that though when presumably you have to declare income from the turnstiles for tax purposes, so assumed I was just bad at estimating.

congratulations on the win

It was a very enjoyable match. No way was it a friendly. It was as tough as any Championship game I’ve seen.

Looking at our performance the main things that stood out for me were as follows. Our defence was superb. We withstood a heck of a lot of pressure on our line and scrambled really well. A couple of times when Batley wingers broke away we had the speed to get back and hold the line too. In attack we were patient and kicked well. It was always going to be close and so it proved. Quite a few times things got heated but we gave as good as we got and didn’t get distracted as we have done in years gone by even if Flanagan ended up in the bin twice.

I thought Lilley grew more influential as the game went on. The halfback partnership with Milnes wasn’t perhaps our best but in the first half they both kicked well and defended well. Milnes was withdrawn in the second half and Wildie moved to halfback with Flanagan as hooker but with Flanagan in the bin for 20mins it meant Lilley had to run things. He did very well considering.

I was impressed with Evans in defence again. He’s a tough bloke. Wildie’s service from dummy half is really good. Crossley looked the part when he came on and Green had a good game too (that was definitely a try under the sticks – I was directly opposite).

Batley were very good too. They will certainly be top half of the division this year. In the forwards they’ve got some big aggressive lads and their offloads caused us problems. Defensively they were very hard to break down and we only managed that a few times. If they have any room for improvement it’s in discipline and just being a bit more clinical when they move the ball.

As for us we play quite a conservative risk free sort of game. It was the right way to play when you consider the result but I think we have more to show in attack. We have a lot of flair on the wings and need to involve them more. I also think we could offload a bit more. I suspect the stats would show us miles behind in offloads.

Well , Thank you all for coming and making the game a pre season spectacle , I hope you all enjoyed your visit to the premier rugby league venue in Kirklees

It’s always a good atmosphere when we go to Batley. Those pies are the best I’ve had in a RL ground.

We’re 16-1 to win the Grand Final and Batley are 100-1 going by the odds on Betfred today. I’d say Batley are going to surprise a few this season. They had their share of tough blokes in the pack with the likes of Dickinson, Brown and Emmett. I imagine if Taira had played it would’ve been even more feisty.

We seemed to pick up a few knocks yesterday with Gibson going off after 2mins with his arm hanging loosely by his side which isn’t a good sign. Minchella strained a calf too. Crossley looked back to full fitness though. I reckon it’ll be a 19s with a sprinkling of reserves and 2nd string versus Toronto next week – I think we’re now battle hardened enough for the Fev game.