Whitehaven at home. They’ve been difficult to beat of late and their off field troubles seem to have pulled them together. They’re undoubtedly a tougher proposition than Skolars. With York being at home to Crusaders I suspect our point difference will be much closer after this next round. Squeaky bum time.

It'll be a tough game, but as it's due to be played in the sunshine and a firm pitch rather than a Cumbrian swamp, I'd say we have a decent chance.

Well, I think we have to be favourites - at home and all that.

We need a similar game to the one at Skolars, as in cut out the early errors and achieve dominance through strong forward play then let the backs loose and the result should take care of itself. I think that not 'declaring our innings closed' or not 'putting the cue on the rack' at any point shouldn't need to be mentioned. Though let's not forget that both us and York have 'easier' and more difficult games to play at different times so there will be plenty of opportunities to put points on in later games.

Bulliac is quite right about 'easier' and more difficult games. In fact I think that of the last 7 matches both York and us play the same 6 teams. Obviously in different orders and different home and away fixtures. Interestingly the final game of the full season is York v Whitehaven and Bulls v Hemel. So if we are a bit behind on points difference then we have a chance to catch up. Always assuming we win all the other games of course.COYB

The way I see it - get the wins and the points will sort itself out. The pressure is on York to make up 76 points, not on us to defend it.

York's coach just got a two match touchline ban too for abusing a match official. He'll have to coach the team via mobile phone for a couple of weeks.

That's clearly the situation but the disparity between the teams in this division does mean that 'blow-outs' are actually more probable than merely possible. With that in mind, and let's not forget that York got 144 in one game (all be it, not necessarly with the squad they have now..) so all I'm really asking for is that we don't 'turn off' when we get in front but keep the pressure on.

All that said, I'm sure the squad are fully alive to all that's going on around them.

It’s only a touch line ban not a ground one, so don’t think it will affect them too much. Vast majority of coaches sit in stands by choice anyway to get a better overall view of game.

76 points over 7 games is nothing and I am a little concerned that York at this moment look capable of scoring more points than us. We are still struggling to really wipe the floor with a team over 80 minutes even though we are scoring 50s regularly.
I wonder whether Kear and Chalmers were also a little concerned we may very well end up in the play offs which is why we have recently brought in four players.
I hope we coast into 1st spot but I think York are playing much more fluent rugby than us right now and only 11 points a game more needed.

Fully expecting us to be 2nd in the league in a couple of weeks time after York have played West Wales.
However they then play Hunslet, Workington away and then Oldham so we might be able to turn it around a bit during those weeks.
It could be anybody's going into the last few weeks of the season.

Having said all that, something will need to go massively wrong for either ourselves or York to not be in the championship next season.

TBF we have scored more points than York and they scored more against West Wales so whilst I see where you are coming from re fluency the stats don't reflect this

The stats don't really tell an accurate story at the moment, because Bradford and York have played different opponents. The only time the stats have true meaning is at the end of the season when all else is equal.

Otherwise it could be argued that Keighley's attack was the best in the league, when after 3 games they'd played West Wales, Coventry & Hemel. Whereas Whitehaven's was rubbish after 3 trips to Bradford, York and Oldham. The league stat would say Keighley's attack is far better, but at the end of the season Whitehaven finish well above them and with a far superior points difference. (Note: Hypothetical scenario)

Ok what was the points difference at half way? Get your point but we are only 3 games past half way and one of those games was v York

Still not accurate though as Bradford have played teams at home that York have played away, and vice versa. It's a guide, but it's not an accurate stat.

The key thing for York is whether they have the same access to their regular loan/DR players for the next 7 games

Ok

No Flanagan or Bustin in the Bulls 19 squad for Saturday. New signing Jonny Pownall in line to make his debut.

Squad: Chisholm, Crossley, Egodo, Garside, Grant, Green, Halafihi, Hallas, Keyes, Kirk, Lilley, Milton, Minchella, Oakes, Peltier, Pickersgill, Pownall, Ryan & Wood

I am glad that I am not paying to watch that, I would seriously borderline that with fraud,,,,,,absolutely disgusting

Very poor today. Well below par.

We bombed 5 clear chances near their line which would have extended our points difference. Also, Chisholm’s brain explosion in the first half deserves a ban. I was amanzed he stayed on the field.

I think your a tad harsh. Minchella made 3 mistakes today out of the 5 which is very unusual for him. We also nilled a team something we haven't done for a while.

Pretty well agree, good first 20 minutes then the worst 60 I have seen in a long time in fairness not helped IMHO by very inconsistent policing of the ruck. Really should have been 70+ against a strangely subdued Cumbrian side. Chisholm should have gone for 10 as a minimum for that.

I did like some of Lilley's play particularly in the first half at least, nice to see someone running on to the ball. Would like to see Egodo see more ball but they seemed intent on going left.

To try and look at the positives.....

Pickers was outstanding and IMO it should be McNally that is waiting for BP to slip up if he wants to regain his place in the side.

Lilley was also very good and will get better if he gets more games.

Egodo looks dangerous and I’d like us to use him more.... wonder what the chances are of us getting him on loan next year.

Agree that Minchella made some uncharacteristic errors but given the season he is having it is forgivable and I’m sure he’ll be planning on putting it right ASAP.

One of the worst games of Rugby I've watched for a long time, I'm only glad that I decided to stay home and watch on the TV..

The flow of the game wasn't helped by some very poor and niggly referring, but the number of unforced errors was ridiculous (from both sides to be fair, but I only care about what we did).

That was a game we could - and should - have won by 70 points. Just hope that doesn't come back to bite us at the end of the season when points difference comes into play

On the plus side, we did nil a team when we usually end up gifting them a few soft tries!

Weird one, if you offered a 46-0 win before kick-off i'd have snapped your hand off. But come away very deflated. We should have scored at least 60. Some very sloppy play and brain explosions.
Thought Lilley looked lively and found a way to put the man through the gap on numerous occasions, we couldn't quite make the pass stick.

Referee was soooo inconsistent though. The one where he pinged us when the Whitehaven player was just laying in the ruck. (slightly o/t but i noticed on Twitter we tweeted the ref gave a controversial decision, which we shouldn't have done, but one of the RL magazines trying to get a few likes and retweets by having a cheap pop at us by pointing out the tweet. I mean yes we should just tweet whats happened, but there's about 20 other clubs who tweet rubbish at the referee, some bordering abuse, yet we get signalled out for calling a decision "controversial"icon_wink.gif anyway rant over about that, all sides need to sort it.

Last point, why oh why did we take the 2 when we had a penalty on the 5th tackle 5m out? There's showing the opposition respect, and there's what we did. The game looked won already at that point. Taking the two just takes all momentum out of it. Awful decision and i didn't understand Kears bench. A hooker, winger, and a light prop. Like to see it more balanced.

I’ll forgive Elliot making some mistakes as long as he is back to been consistent next week. I’m his biggest fan and his biggest critic. Also I’ve had my tonsils out this week so don’t really fancy talking too much at the moment