I can't think of a more classic Bradford response to last week's win. Let's be clear, Sheffield are mid table dross. The question is was it last week that was the anomaly or this week? Because it might well be that we are mid table dross too.

Thoroughly outplayed in every department for about 65mins. Sheffield looked miles fitter, faster, better organised and more enthusiastic. Some awful decision making from us, passive defence, poor kick and chase.

Positives are hard to think of. Plenty of effort from Miller and DFJ. That's about it. The fitness is a big concern of mine as was the lack of enthusiasm. We lost the arm wrestle and that meant we lost the energy battle. Well played Sheffield.

All I can say about that was at least the seats were clean !

Think that's the most deflating result for a long long time. A great win last week, chance to back that up against a team we shouldn't need any motivation to beat, 1st home game of the season and we bottle it. Instead of getting the win and building up a big game against Leigh next week, we're now likely to be 1 from 3 after next week.

Well in terms of competitive games the last example was only 2 games ago against haven.

This sums it up perfectly. Last week we were very good and today we were exceptionally bad. We've been brought back down to earth with an almighty bump!

I felt that we fell in love with ourselves after last weeks performance and all we had to do today was turn up and we'd take home the 2 points. We lacked go forward, our discipline and attitude was very poor and we looked absolutely shot to pieces in the final 10 minutes. We never seemed to win the arm wrestle and just let the Eagles march us back down the field time and time again.

Sheffield played the conditions perfectly and their kicking game and go forward in the second half had us pinned in our own 20 for large periods of the game. That area of the field was a mud bath and we couldn't get ourselves out of trouble. The game plan was all wrong and we tried to play fast expansive rugby in terrible conditions. Lots of individual errors stunted our limited attacking threats. Patton tried his hardest but became frustrated and ended up in the bin because of it. After we scored in the second half and got ourselves back in front, I said to myself, "Who's dropping it from the kick off then?" and Crossley goes and makes a meal of the restart.

A very bad day at the office for JK and the Bulls.

Leigh weren't really given a run out last week in a one-sided game against 'Haven. Still relative strangers to one another though the left side seems to be clicking nicely.

All eyes on Postage Stamp Road tomorrow. That will be a better litmus test.

Still, Bongser's left eyebrow was permanently lodged near his receding hairline as he watched the second half score progress on Flashscore (don't tell his boss). Ouch.

Early doors.

Any travellers for the game a week on Monday will find Bongser in Tom Burke's ('Spoons) from about 6pm.

Couldn’t agree more with this. Fell in love with ourselves after the dewsbury result. Scoring very early against Sheffield and I think we started to think about Leigh next week. Before we knew it we were in a game and by half time we were only ever going to lose.

As someone else mentioned, even with the bad weather I was surprised how empty the terracing was. A good win today might have encouraged some back. Todays performance will have encouraged people to skip Leigh away (although I’ve already agreed to go

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Our big forwards couldn't handle the conditions and Sheff worked our middle over. Wallace, England and Doyle worked their balls off but Sheff advanced as a line. The backs tried their best to help out but Crossley, Walker, Evans, Baldwinson couldn't get up and back. Every time we pinned them in their own 20 the ref gave a penalty because we couldn't make the 10. Corey Johnson looked lost. Walker only came back on when the game was over. Why is he so big?

I don't believe the stuff about attitude or falling in love with ourselves for one minute. Our defensive line speed, totally and 100% collapsed in the conditions because of the fitness and condition of our middles to handle an absolute bog. We simply weren't prepared and we desperately lack work rate and legs around the ruck.

Has the track work raised the level and created run off onto the pitch because I can't remember it ever looking like that?

I didn't watch the game so can't comment on the fitness/attitude. However listening to the radio (so apologies if this isn't accurate) it sounded like the same schoolboy errors that cost us last season. In that second half we got caught on the last tackle on the half way line early on in the half and never recovered as it sounded like we didn't get out of our own half from that point on. We had a 7 tackle set after they kicked the ball dead, knocked-on first tackle. Then we were 2 points ahead with 10 minutes to go, and we fail to deal with a kick-off. I'd love to see the stats on us fielding kick-offs as I reckon we must make more errors than the entire league combined.

So frustrating as we get ourselves in good positions to do well as a club and completely blow it all by ourselves. Sheffield will be in the bottom 4 and we've lost our first home game of the season against them.

After sleeping on it the only thing I can say is Dewsbury must be total garbage...dear god I've never done the Wiggin walk but I was a gnats chuff away from it yesterday...Short drop out, with a gale in your face???

How successful were they with the short kicking game? You'd have thought one of our team would have thought about trying it. I know Kear says sometimes it's a decent position to turn the ball over if your caught in possession in their 10 metres but do we really have to make a serious attempt to do it every time we drag our sorry backsides out of our own half?

The conditions were shocking and Sheff put us under a great defensive effort. Plus we went to the backs too much because our forwards tired. Whereas they caught the ball and ran 8 metres before contact. I can't remember and error we forced until Flanagan won the penalty. So yes we made errors under pressure whereas they weren't under any pressure and carted it up at will.

It might seem strange but I thought the decision to go for two when were so exhausted defending our line and could have stayed on Sheff's line, demoralised the players. I actually thought that's cost us the game as Sheff will get another chance and score. The last 7/8 minutes were a bunch of lads who'd given up.

On the last tackle turnover we put in one short kick. And scored. They forced several drop outs. It's out of order for Kear to put it on the players.

The fitness is a concern for me. After 20mins we looked knackered. We didn't make that first period tell but even if Gill hadn't knocked on from Patton's kick the warning signs were there. Sheffield were defending the swamp end by the Coral Stand (I'm sure the track isn't helping the drainage - the pitch is an absolute disgrace) yet by the end of the first half they were making 60-70m per set. We were lucky to make 20-30m when we came out of that end. Taking the ball stood still and running across field played into their hands and it showed just how out of condition the forwards are. Too often they shirked the tough carries.

Defensively it was just as bad. There was no line speed at all. Sheffield players ran harder and straighter and made 10m per carry at least. We couldn't get up or back in time (fitness) and the contact was pitifully weak. Looking at Liam Kirk he looked way better than he did when he was with us. What's going on?

Not sure what tactics were employed but the kicking game wasn't helped by the passive defence. I agree about going for the 2 points. In the early part of the second period we never once got out of our half yet when we did after 20mins we managed to score. Apart from that we were camped at our end.

When we played into the wind we didn't kick well. The incident where we got a penalty and kicked for touch and it blew backwards 10m was awful. Why not just tap and run? Also handing the ball over on the last tackle simply shouldn't happen. Too often we didn't build pressure.

I think it's clear now that Kear's time at the club is drawing to a close and we do need a change. Too often we put in these crap performances and he goes on about poor attitude. Does he not spot the warning signs in the week leading up to the game? He's been around long enough. The size of some players shows that they're not taking things as seriously as they need to and little things like our continued ability to mess up on kick offs shows that we're not professional enough.

The end of last season we turned in a bunch of below par performances and some said that it would be different this year as some players had been weeded out. Well yesterday showed that we're still not good enough and without a change we'll be around 4th or 5th again.

4th or 5th





Lets be fair you are not up there with fax, batley and york maybe competing for 6th if your lucky with widnes

Kear talked the big talk after our defeat at Batley at the end of last season.
If he thinks this squad can genuinely push for promotion then he's deluded.

And yeah we'll be lucky to get 4th or 5th at this rate. Very lucky.

I mentioned the state of the pitch a few weeks ago and was told by some on here that the pitch was fine and it was only the track around and the corners. Anyone there yesterday knows the real deal.

On the decision to take the two. The penalty was awarded right in front of me and the majority of the players called for two on the pitch. Maybe kear with all those years of experience should have known better but the players called that one.

Sheffield were aggressive in defence whereas we let them run at us and lacked real goforward essential in those conditions

Well we can beat any of those "on our day". It's just that we'll follow it up by losing to one of the bottom three and carry on like that all season. 4th-6th sounds pretty fair IMO.

Not sure about the pitch being fine but it didn't look quite as bad versus Leeds due to there being a dry spell beforehand. If we get a bit of rain it looks absolutely horrendous, particularly the Coral Stand end. I saw a bloke walking around sticking a fork in it during halftime yesterday. Not sure it was worth bothering. Looks as if the drainage is knackered.

Think the decision to take the two was a mistake whoever made it. We obviously thought we could grind it out and would get another spell in the Sheffield end. Our powder puff defence and sideways attack meant we wouldn't.

We get takled in to touch on the the last tackle Sheff score before we touch the ball again.

We give a way a penalty after gathering a Sheff kick. Again they score.

Crossley lets the kick off hit his beer gut rather than catch it on the full. Sheff score.

Patten cocks up a short kick off. Sheff score.

Sheff kick 2 pens including one following another balls up of a short restart

All 28 points came on the back of our errors. Every team makes mistakes but you have to be able to defend the next set. Our attitude to want to defend after making a mistake was shocking.

Add that to the complete lack of urgency in attack, what a complete disaster.

I actually think scoring so early was a bad thing. Players thought it was going to be a walk in the park after that

Our ability to take a kickoff seems to have got worse over the past few years. Would love to know how our stats on this basic skill compare with others.

Agree. I think we wrote a cheque for ourselves in talking about wanting to put a score on Sheffield and couldn’t cash that cheque. Sheffield fronted us up and we weee found wanting.

As bullseye mentions the annoying thing is the consistency. Whilst I fully expect us to get 50 put on us by Leigh, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we lose to Leigh by less than a single try and are hailed as valiant losers who will easily turn over barrow if we play like that etc and so on until September.

Spot on that. We're consistently inconsistent. Barrow will be no pushover, they beat Sheffield last weekend. I fully expect Sammut and Ritson to run rings around us if we manage to bounce back versus Leigh.

Sheffield losing to Dewsbury today despite having an extra man for 30mins shows just how bad a result this was.

Indeed. Don't turn up = get spanked.