I would have this as a "really can't afford to lose" than a must win. If we lose this then that's 4 in a row with Widnes and Leigh to come. With the league so tight we could find ourselves suddenly in the relegation zone. Fans become restless and the wheels start to come off etc

Batley have been poor. I've been banging on all season we need to come out and not have so much respect for the opposition. Come out and lay a marker down like York do. We start off slow, inevitably their crowd and players lift and make things difficult for ourselves. I really want us to have an attitide of "we're going to put a score on you today"

I know George likes to get everyone gee'd up but for me he should have a little sit down this week...

100% agree
I said in the off season i thought we.needed 2 new hookers. I still stand by that comment.
Widie has done ok but George has looked way out of his depth so far. Im not sure if a week off will give him a kick up the backside or if hes just not up to it in this.league. i sincerely hope its the former as id love to see him playing well

Flanagan certainly hasn’t been playing well for several weeks and maybe is due a rest but that means Hallas/Wildie sharing the hooking duties. Considering Lilley is back who partners him in the halfbacks if you move Wildie to hooker? AFAIK Chisholm is doubtful and Milnes and Keyes are still injured.

Flanagan had a good game in the Yorkshire Cup final vs Batley (despite the yellow card) as he completely distracted the dafter Batley forwards from playing rugby. Do we keep him in for that purpose again?

I notice Wilson came through the U19s game ok. Do we go large on the bench with him and Bustin to give us a bit more go forward? I certainly would.

Elsewhere do you give Pickersgill another chance to find a bit of form? He had a bit of a mare last week.

Ryan at FB and Pickersgill at 6 would be the best option for me.

It's going to be Lilley and Wildie in the halfbacks.

Probably better than last week, but it's still not looking good.

I'm not looking forward to this Sunday at all.

I think it’ll be like last time and we’ll just scrape a win. Remember we had Milnes and Lilley in the YC final and Milnes went off after halftime so we finished with the same halfbacks. Bustin coming back adds a fair bit more power up front for us. Batley have been poor lately and don’t seem to be a happy bunch under Diskin.

Pickersgill, Evans, Gibson, Webster, Ryan, Lilley, Wildie, Crossley, Hallas, Kirk, Garside, Farrell, Wood. Subs - Flanagan, Bustin, Green, Storton.

Is it time for AC's 'team talk' yet?

I can see it now… “Batley is a poophole and their players are all a bunch of softies. I hate Super League.”

Is that along the right lines?

You forgot the mandatory swipe at Neil Hudgell.

Think the squad picks itself.

Pickersgill
Evans
Gibson
Webster
Ryan
Lilley
Wildie
Kirk
Hallas
Crossley
Farrell
Garside
Wood

Flanagan
Green
Bustin
Storton

Decent squad that for the slug fest it will BE. Hope Kear doesn't have another selection implosion and have 1 prop on bench with a centre.

The Batley chairman is one of Chalmers closest allies. I think they’ll coordinate their swipe at Hudgell....

I’d be tempted to put Pickersgill at 6 in attack but 1 in defence like we used to do with Brett Kearney.

Id go as far to say this is a must win game, but with the injury curse we seem to be going through i think its going to be extremely difficult

Much improved performance today.

Half time score:
Batley 0 Bradford 16

Final score of 6-16 to Bradford. Now a win is a win, but that second half the ill-discipline that cost us against Sheffield came roaring back.
A better team would have taken us to the cleaners

Really good team performance that IMO. Not perfect, had moment of sloppiness early in the first half and we'll need to improve for Widnes next week. But thought as a team we grinded out the win. Think the comment about discipline is a bit harsh. Sheffield we obviously lost the plot. But I thought a fair few of Batleys late penalties were brought with them being desperate rather than us lacking discipline.

Scrappy win for the Bulls. Just glad we got over the line and got the 2 points after a bad spell of games.

Daunting trip to a resurgent Widnes next Sunday.

I thought we showed huge effort & excellent game management, which was what was needed on that slope in winter conditions. Plenty more to come

Just like to say a big thanks to all the Batley bulldogs staff for making our visit , as a neutral (cas fans) to their patch great. And to watch 2 teams slog it out in those wintry conditions. Also to see our man Jake webbo Webster play, brought back a few memories.
Also, all championship clubs should take note, that Batley charge a tenner for adults holding a superleague season ticket, and £3 for kids. This would probably bring more neutral fans into your grounds on a Sunday. Great idea.
Anyway good luck bradford

Really enjoyed the game today the boys showed grit and resilience. Loved seeing the Lilley/Wildie partnership and they organised the game well in the terrible conditions. The forwards were excellent and put some big hits in. I think Kear managed the subs well for the first time in a few weeks. Looking forward to next week. Hope the team doesn’t change too much!

Has anyone else heard that we are trying to get rid of Dane Chisholm?. Rumours on totalrl

Very solid performance. Before the game I thought it could be a total war of attrition, the hailstorm that blew down the hill during the “warm-up” had the Bulls players shielding their eyes. The pitch looked heavy and it would’ve been another slogfest.

As it was we had the slope in the first half and the weather cleared up as the game went on. I thought the forwards were strong again with Crossley really playing himself into form. Green looked well up for it when he came on and Kirk put in a useful stint. Bustin didn’t do long minutes but was effective. Ryan took his try well and the Oakes and Kirk tries were well worked. Having a pair of halfbacks that worked well together was a contrast with last week when we had nobody. The 16 nil halftime lead was well deserved as our defence answered everything Batley threw at it.

Second half was another good defensive effort. Coming up the hill was always going to be tougher. We seemed more disciplined despite conceding a few penalties for technical offences. Not sure why we got a team warning at one point. We didn’t seem to be particularly bad. Although we conceded one try we didn’t really look like conceding another. In attack we seemed to come down the right a bit too much. We’d had some joy down the left in the first half but seemed to ignore that in the second for some reason. As a result we didn’t quite look as effective. Much as I like Rhys Evans he’s not a great passer of the ball and seems too keen to tuck the ball under his arm. Twice he could’ve passed to DFJ who was in the clear but didn’t. Lilley kicked well in the 2nd half and was only caught on the last tackle one. We seemed to be sticking to a plan of pinning them in their 20m and it pretty much worked.

It was a case of solid performances all round. Crossley looked much more like his old self and made a lot of ground. Lilley kicked well and was resolute in defence. Wood had a great first spell – he’s definitely my pick for loose forward. DFJ had a solid debut on the wing and dealt with all the kicks. Flanagan had a much more disciplined game too.

We’ve still got a long way to go to get the attack flowing like it can. The issues with the halfbacks are well known. In truth I think we’ve tried too many combinations and that hasn’t helped. Keyes’ injury doesn’t look like it’s clearing up soon which is a shame as he could offer a bit more of a running threat. I’ve seen the rumours about Chisholm on TRL. It would seem odd if we were offering him around other clubs given that we just gave him a new 1 year contract and he’s just had a kid. Then again stranger things have happened. I would say we didn’t seem to miss him yesterday. Long term I think Rowan Milnes is the man to partner Lilley.