Thought we did all the hard work and threw it away, to be honest.

The forwards were immense and took the game to a very physical Batley side - maybe not the game to have two forwards making their season debut, but you have to take the hand you're dealt and the physical side was dealt with well for the most part with a big Batley pack being largely nullified on their own 'midden'. We lost our way in the last 20mins though and should have kept up the intensity or, at the very least, 'managed' the end better than we did.

Don't know about the penalty or the conversion, these are decisions which sometimes go your way and sometimes go the way of your opponents, so it's barmy to blame the referee for us dropping a point we should have kept. For the real reasons, we need to look nearer home, imo. At the end of the day, Batley did well to come back and you can't say they didn't deserve their point, so good luck to them.

First the good things. I though Clare and Caro did a superb job of taking a lot of high kicks under pressure. It forced Batley to change tactics. I thought Pitts ran some great lines and worked very hard. His first half try was very well worked. I was pleased to see Mitch Clark carry the ball so strongly – he’s a big handful and a real plus off the bench. It was good to see Paul Clough back. We scored enough points get in a winning position despite having thrown possession and field position away constantly. Finally I thought our defence was pretty good for long periods too.

Less good things. Our game management was atrocious – particularly as the game went on. Our kicking game was very poor. We failed to build any pressure. Gaskell’s kicking from the hand is poor and Addy was anonymous. We should have been pegging Batley in their own quarter in the second half but we let them make cheap yards through poor kicks and ill-discipline.

Clark spoiled a good game with two needless penalties but he wasn’t alone. The one at the death looked fairly innocuous to me but Clough did seem to have the Batley player around the throat. A few times we either gave cheap yards away or made an error then compounded it with a penalty. The penalty at the end looked good to me despite fans in the stand complaining it was wide.

When we had the ball we didn’t look slick enough and we let the pressure off countless times with errors and forward passes. The obstruction we gave away in the first half was bad. We were trying to play it fast but it seemed to be too forced and it wasn’t fluid enough to pay off. In the second half I think we lost composure. When Clark made the break he needed to slow down in order to execute an accurate pass to Gaskell. Instead he threw it forward. That missed chance cost us 2pts.

When Batley came back into it we should have gone for 1 point. You could see Lowes signalling for it at the side of the pitch near the bottom corner – he came down from the stand to try to get his point over. Did either of our playmakers take any notice? No. We lack leadership in the middle. Gaskell isn’t really that kind of player and Addy isn’t a natural half or consistent enough. He was sadly lacking. Batley’s halfbacks aren’t world beaters but they put in quality kicks at the end of each set which came off twice when they started kicking to the middle rather than the wings. What was Matty Blythe doing under that kick? Where was Mathers. Why did we let so many bounce?

Overall a point lost for us but Batley deserved the draw. They played it simple and effective. They were better drilled – which was an indictment of our players who have all week to practice. On the occasions we clicked we did look decent but it was in the main far too scrappy from us. Batley also scored the best try when Ulugia sold a huge dummy to Caro and then passed inside.

It’s not the end of the world but for me it highlighted our lack of a decent playmaking halfback. We will need to address this for the middle 8s or we might as well not bother.

Fair post bullseye

I wasn't at the game but the theme seems similar from all posters.

Still undefeated and much of what went wrong can be easily worked on.

I like the fact the competition seems much more than a 2 horse race - more competitive matches through the year will stand us in better stead for the 8's

Agreed. I was having the same thoughts last night. But it also puts the lack of a mid field general in starker relief. It's not necessarily true that we'll bounce in to the M8s and the season starts then, even if recruitment policy does seem predicated on it. Still, we're still relatively doors yet though.

Anyhoo, the championship is getting pretty top heavy right now. I did a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cann_tableCann table[/url last night to show the distances between the various groupings that are starting to form.

Whilst I think Addy is a very good player we all know he is not a scrum half. He is a ball playing loose forward and plays the game as such. Consequently he plays more from a central position rather than looking after the playmaking on one side of the pitch. Gaskell looks after the left side leaving us short of creativity on the right. A scrum half pleeeeease . . Declan Patton from Warrington would be ideal.

On a side note, the attendance yesterday given as 2,742. If their capacity is 6,000 I don't see by any stretch of the imagination you could fit over that amount of people again into the ground. Is it my eyes or is something amiss here? I seem to remember something similar last year and the figure was revised.

I've seen another quote of 3800

Looked like more than last year.

It was 2,742 in League Express. Looked more than last year to me also.

Money in someone's pocket perhaps. Cheeky gets put parking charge up to £3 was only £2 last week against Workington. On the up side nice cider at a good price and one of the best steak pies I've ever eaten.

The pies behind the Glen Tomlinson stand are fantastic. Well worth the wait.

(primarily because the wait was endured by someone who sacrificed a large portion of their firs half for my pie)

Only place I've seen that figure is Mr Gledhill. Who despite being a good commentator, seems to make up the attendance figure every week. He inflated the Leigh one by about 2,000 aswell, despite official numbers coming out differently. He's also said today that 4,000 fans need answers on the kick, even though only 2,700 were there. He seems to have some kind of mental problem when it comes to attendances.




This did my head in. Every single bomb they put up, Clare & Caro fielded brilliantly. Yet nobody on our team or coaching staff seemed to take note of the fact and try it at the other end.

As far as the goal kick at the end goes, it was fine. The video is from behind the sticks. All the fans kicking off about it not being over were also behind the sticks. Had the penalty been dead central, they would have had the best view. But it wasn't.
I was stood a bit further right and could see where the penalty was taken in a direct line through the posts. It just crept to the correct side of the posts (albeit above them, which is what confused some). Everyone around me thought it was fine, and they had a better angle of view than those in the middle of the stand.

I will say the biggest problem after the p*ss poor game management was the O'Brien substitution. Addy went to hooker, where he's way too slow. Thomas came into the halves, where he was garbage. Offered next to nothing in attack and didn't look like he could tackle a 5 year old. Thomas to me proved on Sunday why we signed Mathers.

Biggest positives out of the game were Mitch Clark, Dale Ferguson and Jay Pitts. All 3 ran their blood to water and were really impressive.

It might be easier just to leave it there.

O’Brien rolled his ankle which is why he was subbed. I hope it’s not too serious or we’ll be regretting sending Halafihi on loan.

I agree about the kicking 100%. Our kicking game was abysmal. This has long been a weakness in Gaskell’s game and he looks no better this season. Addy was also anonymous in this respect. We failed to build any pressure with kicks at all. Ok we might have dropped the ball or passed forward on a few occasions before we got to the 5th tackle but when we did complete a set the kick was usually garbage.

Although Cain Southernwood is a bit slow he looked a better scrum half than Danny Addy on Sunday.

As much as I don't want him out, I'm actually relieved to hear that. If it had been tactical rather than an injury, I would be highly questioning Jimmy's ability.

Harsh. Coming off the bench to slot in t half back is never easy. Thomas played at 7 so not showed why it showed why we signed Matters who played full back (who also let the ball bounce about 3 times) Thomas was very good in the friendlies at FB.

Also was Thomas worse than Addy who knocked on or threw a forward pass on at least 3 occasions or Gaskell who kicked it out on the full and equally can up with as many errors.

No idea how you've singled Thomas out as the garbage one.

Just watched highlights. Lots of ifs and buts I know but just watch that last Penalty that was given. Batley Hooker at dummy half didnt appeal, nor did the guy that was tackled. Merry Flag Waver trots on to give Batley a 2 point present.

If you are 12 points up you shouldn't really complain if the ref gifts them a last minute penalty that means you have thrown points away. Last year we complained there were no enough intensity but this year in the two intense games we have had we have failed to win either.

Precisely. Yes the penalty looked soft, but if you're only winning by 2 at the end, you have yourself to primarily blame.

Had the game management been better, we'd have been up by more points. As we wouldn't have given the ball away so stupidly, allowing them a try, or we would have kicked a drop goal and they'd have had to run that penalty instead of kick it.

Yeah then put up a high ball which we wouldn't have dealt with, and we'd have lost !!

Been thinking about this a bit. TBH until batley game didn't think our last tackle kicks had been particularly poor this year. That combined with our seeming unwillingness to test batley with high bombs makes me wonder wether the slope at batley was an issue. Heard it mentioned numerous times that the angles are deceptive and its tricky to judge kicks if you aren't used to it. Obviously not something that would affect batley as they play on it every other week.

Yes, the challenges of playing Batley were too much for us. We need easier opposition.

Batley were practising bombs throughout the warm up and it struck me how accurate they were with their kicks during the game. This was in contrast to our last tackle kicks. I think we forced one drop out in the second half but my memory could be out. The Gaskell kick out on the full was bad as was the grubber straight into the defender's legs. I seem to remember Addy booting it into the head of a Batley player in the first half too.

You can't build pressure if your kicking game is bad. Thing is kicking skills can be honed by practice. It's not some sort of dark art. Addy is capable of kicking very well - he's just too inconsistent. Much like the rest of his game. On his day he can produce something top quality but it's usually provided along with a load of dross too. Do they need specialist help? Do they practice enough. Your guess is as good as mine.

The current side would be transformed with a playmaking scrum half added to it. The current side is fine in every department apart from this. It reminds me of Northern when Harkin was injured or before we signed Deryck Fox. More recently it's reminiscent of when Orford left us in the lurch and we relied on sub standard or makeshift halfbacks.