What a poor performance that was.

Gutted Welham is injured as it means Blythe will almost certainly stay in the team.

Lumb showed some decent signs.

Thomas is not a half back - I'd rather in my hands and clap than see him there again.

I know we saw the cup as an unwanted distraction, and I'm not sorry we're out, but some people need to think about a team that can't cope with first Batley, then Dewsbury, yet allegedly having genuine ambitions to beat SL teams and get promoted. Delusional, we're nowhere near a promotion contender

Agreed.

Play like that against any SL side and we would have 60 put past us.

Our defence on the edges has been a problem for too long.

Credit to Dewsbury - they worked hard and had the belief to hold out until the end.

Positives:

Clare at FB - did more there than Mathers had in the 5 games he's played. So I expect Jimmy to put Mathers straight back in next week...

Joe Lumb - looked really good. Putting him in for 20 mins a game will allow O'Brien to have a breather so we will see more of him in attack (which lets be honest, he's been pretty average so far this year) but again I expect Jimmy to keep flogging O'Brien for 80 mins so we reduce his excellent attacking threat as he's defending so much and then Jimmy will realise he's nearly killed the lad by time the middle 8s come and he'll come up with a coaching master plan of playing a centre at hooker

Mitch Clark - outstanding again!


And thats it. Absolutely woeful yet again.

Yes being out of the cup is probably going to be more beneficial, but Jimmy chose more or less his strongest side so he was going for the win and for the third week in a row, we were second best. Most of their team would have had to do a days graft today.

What did Jimmy say about game management last week. Obviously we've been working all week on it as it was there in abundance tonight. Absolute shambles at the moment. We've got big big problems. This isn't a one off.

Genuine promotion contenders ooze class and professionalism every time they play, displaying an absolute commitment to winning every game regardless of the opposition or competition. What we're watching is a rag bag of a side, coached by a buffoon.

Well done Glen and the lads. Managed to do us this week after Batley just failed last week. Speaking of which, this was just like watching a re-run of the Batley match. Poor game management, poor defence, letting bombs bounce, no leadership, and foward driven tactics with little ball movement. No fixture backlog excuses now. Wonder what the coach makes of that performance?

Frightening and alarming that part timers are not just catching us up,but getting the better of us. On our budgets,this should not be happening.So far we are showing no improvement from last season, despite new recruits which were meant to increase our strength.We may just be going backwards,something is lacking cohesion in the coaching/recruitment department.I'm all for Bullmania,but when I have to apply Bullishness as an adjective to the stubbornness of JL,there needs to be change.Furthermore,if the rest of the season is merely serving as an experimental prelude to the Middle 8's then count me out.

Looking at the team sheet it seems like you started with a winger at fullback, a fullback at 7 and your best 7 at 9.... am I missing something?

I posted last week on how a part time could draw with us as a FULL TIME TEAM, This week...... say no more, loyal bulls fans let down again. Jimmy as much as i thought you were great as a Bulls player this should will be your last season. if not it will be a lot of bulls fans last season.

From the face of it we've stumbled across a good one in Mitch Clark but honestly a full time side shouldn't be putting up results like we are! While our lads are having a laugh trotting round tong, their lads are grafting 8-10 hours then turning up and performing koi their lives depend on it. This forum shouldn't be having the same conversations we should be fitter stronger and smarter than every team in this league but we aren't. We need a change at the top but in all seriousness who will come in and straighten it out? Matt Elliot is out of a job at the moment I believe

Why can't we play rugby. all we've got is five drives and a kick. Every team we've played this year look sharper and more organised than us. Even when we got in front we still did plan A. for gods sake Jimmy lets throw the ball around with a bit of structure and at least look like a rugby side. Looking at sides we've played this year we could be struggling to make the top four.Super league just a dream

Lowes tactics are virtually nonexistent. 5 drives up the middle then a kick with no follow up. If that doesn't work, he's utterly stumped.

How much longer will the club persist with this failed coach? There were better coaches than Lowes available when he got the job. There are better coaches available now.

We are not getting promoted with Lowes as head coach. It's as simple as that. If he really cared about the club then he'd do the honorable thing, hold up his hands and say "I gave it my best, but my best isn't good enough to get the job done". But he won't because he's pigheaded and convinced of he's in the right even when he's not

I didn't even realize but Dews lost their scrum half in the warm up! And on the back of this how many GLDO's did they force just showing how badly we lack someone to control the game

Joe Lumb certainly upped our game speed when he came on and was a breath of fresh air.

I am really really peed off with our shocking inability to deal with bombs. Letting ball bounce twice again last night. Dont they ever practice catching them????????????????????

Thomas kept being sent out of the line by Gaskell so never had chance of getting into the game.

We scored one more try than them. Sykes kicked all their goals, at least 3 from touch line. Our kicker missed 3
one of which fell yards short of the goal.(But he kicked a belter against Leigh)

Their wingers had 3 walk-in tries. Our wingers didnt really get a sniff.

Concentrate on League now. And picking up Scrum Half. Just to remind you we lost to a p/t team with a reserve scrum half who didnt know he was playing till 10 mins before kick off.

COYB.

Think you're reading a little too much into numbers,to be honest.

Clare is basically a winger but he's an experienced fullback and decent under the high ball. Thomas, despite his no. 1 number, does have experience in the halves, though it's fair to say he's generally inexperienced all round. Sad to say you're fully correct on the last bit, our 13 is our best 7 and was used at 9.......can't understand how we lost

The lack of any evidence of improvement since the Batley game is worrying.

This squad is playing well within itself. In fact we're going backwards.

To me that shows the players aren't responding to the coach.

Surely you don't meant that Dews had a scrum half and a back-up. That is so last century rugby. They know nothing. I can't see them winning a game all season with that type of thinking.

It was nice to see someone mention Matty Elliots name. I have always argued that he was the main person doing the coaching rather than Smith when they were both here. Yes, He would also be on my short list to replace Jimmy.

We all need to tell Mr Green to forget about the new roof and put just a few grand into bringing in a new coach. Make Jimmy an assistant coach and he will refuse that and leave.

Sure, blame Green, sure, blame Lowes. If I were a Bulls player I would be ashamed to show my face, we have descended to being on a par with the part-timers of Batley and Dewsbury, and therefore these guys are stealing a full-time wage.

Never mind what Lowes says to them, once on the field, especially in the second half, Lowes isn't playing and a full-time so-called-SL-quality squad would just go do the business and comfortably run out winners against Championship part-timers.

The fact that our shambolic lot don't, says it all at the moment.

I mean no direspect at all to either Dewsbury or Batley. (And letting Morrison leave as I've often said was one of our many huge mistakes) If I lived in either place, i could cheerfully follow either of them. It's just that we are supposed to have ambitions to be a SL club and are playing full-time on top-dollar to get there. To say we should comfortably outclass the part-time Batleys and Dewsburys of the leagues is just stating the truth.

I asked Matt on Facebook said he was too settled doing his motivational speaking that he does.

Hearing Lowes come out with the 'we failed do what we practiced' every week is worrying.

I don't think for one minute that he's not busting a gut to get the team playing for the full 80 minutes, but - for whatever reason - it didn't happen last season, and doesn't appear to have improved this season.

In the end, as with all sporting teams, even though you can blame the players, its never the players that pay the price - its the guy at the top who invariably has to go...

So squad rotation works? It seems most of those who post on this forum were calling for rotation all last season and when Lowes tries it , we lose.
O'Brien may have been injured or may have been able to play. Many on this forum have commented that he was "flogged to death " last season. Never mind that many NRL and some SL teams have 80 minute hookers. One person has said that he poses little attacking threat . That is presumably why a good number of SL teams have been linked with him.Anyway, Lumb was one of our best players- so perhaps Lowes will use him regularly from the bench.
At half time last night we had 3 of the 17 out injured. Does anyone think that having 1 player on the bench might just have evened up a contest between a part time side and a full time side? Does anyone think that may have affected our tactics?
IMO Purtell, Williams , O'Brien , Kavanagh, Sidlow and Haggerty would all be in the top 17- replacing over a third of last night's team.
I agree with everyone regarding the need for a scrum half. IMO one is needed no later than the beginning of June.

Didn't exactly rotate, we made a couple of changes. Lowes was going for win and we lost. The third week in a row we have been utter dreadful. What were the excuses for Batley and he performance against Leigh?

On the point of NRL. We play 30+ games, not sure how many they play but it's certainly nowhere near that. Comparing hookers who play in the worlds best league to a young player who 24 months a go wasn't playing much rugby is a stupid argument. Plus the NRL don't lose all their points they have earned to then start over in a mini league like we do. You seriously think O'brien went into that million pound match 100% fit and fresh?

On the injuries, we only had 2. Lowes decided not to put Thomas back on after his intercept pass. Granted it was a shocker but it
Seems some players make a mistake and they are brought off and not given a sniff to get back in the team, yet some are allowed to make as many mistakes as they like (Blythe throwing the ball away on 1st tackle from an attacking scrum was equally as criminal)

Also do you not think Dewsbury had injuries? They lost their HB in the warm up!

Sorry but we have more than enough resources to in this league to cope with injuries.

It's not a one off!

If the coach in charge had any other name than Jimmy Lowes there would be a full call for his head. Looking back at his coaching career at Bradford performances have got progressively worse.

The fan base of this club seems to expect failure more than any club. The McClueless years then Francis " Bennett " Cummins and now Lowes.