Re: Barrow (H) : Sun Jun 02, 2024 3:23 pm  

The game descends into chaos with more fighting as Barrow go in to score in the corner.

Sounds like another game that could slip through our fingers. Time for EOC and the players to earn their money.

Re: Barrow (H) : Sun Jun 02, 2024 3:28 pm  

Gilly wins it for the Bulls!

Re: Barrow (H) : Sun Jun 02, 2024 7:57 pm  

Made that hard work. Total control for 15 minutes then Barrow realised they couldn’t match us unless they dragged us down to their level. And it worked, the slow play, the niggle, the cheap shots disrupted our discipline. At one point I think we were 6:1 down in the penalty count.
Then Doro reacted to a forearm to the jaw and got himself a red card.
But that brought out our excellent scrambling defence which hasn’t been about for a few weeks.
Lots of good play though, Appo got MoM, started the game, played lots of minutes. And another mention for Fulton, can’t stop scoring.

Re: Barrow (H) : Sun Jun 02, 2024 8:25 pm  

We made that hard work. A good win but quite a bit of dumb rugby on display surrendering ball and field position on the first tackle multiple times.

Discipline almost cost us the game. Doro might miss a few games now which is a shame although hopefully KR will decide he’s a thug and leave him alone please…

[Bullseye]

Re: Barrow (H) : Sun Jun 02, 2024 9:28 pm  

Barrow's niggly gameplan almost paid off. Luckily we had too much class in the end but we really made hard work of it.

Gaskell should've been MOM as he was instrumental in nearly all our tries. Honourable mentions for Appo and Myers who both also played well. Ott also had his best game for us.

Doro's reaction probably deserved a red card but I'm not going to be too hard on him. Barrow's gameplan was awful and there'd been so much niggle that it was going to kick off at some point. The late flare up with Fulton getting a yellow card was dealt with very poorly by the referee. Fulton gets a proper clothesline then gets up and has a go at the perpetrator, then gets totally blindsided by a Barrow player running in yet he gets marched for 10mins. He wins the penalty yet is the only one sent from the field. Bizarre.

Re: Barrow (H) : Sun Jun 02, 2024 9:58 pm  

Yeh credit to the Bulls for digging deep in the final 25 minutes and finding a way to win. After Doro saw red, the last thing we needed was to concede a try moments later - but we did. Some brain farts gifted Barrow position and possession and they punished our mistakes - particularly in the 1st half.

Gaskell came up with some nice touches and made a difference without ever really looking like he was at 100%. Let's hope he is due a sustained run without injury now. Pleasing to get the 2 points when a couple of sides above dropped points unexpectedly.

Re: Barrow (H) : Mon Jun 03, 2024 8:29 am  

Tough two points. Some very shaky moments and plenty to work on but getting the two points is what matters. Barrow really are a horrible side to play.

Teams above ud dropping points and will again in the next couple of rounds due to playing each other. So we could be in a good position come the halfway point with tough, but "winnable" games. Next rounds will define where we want to finish IMO happy to float around 4th/5th, or push on for a second place finish.

Re: Barrow (H) : Mon Jun 03, 2024 10:01 am  

Real up and down game, good in parts and poor in others.

I thought the back 3 in our pack were superb. Must mention Butler who was all over the game. Often the unsung hero in the team but his consistency is often overlooked.

[Bullseye]

Re: Barrow (H) : Mon Jun 03, 2024 3:49 pm  

Yeh Butler has been great this season and we really miss him when he's out. Bit of an unsung hero.

Thought the first 20mins were great yesterday but as soon as Barrow put some pressure on us we looked very shaky. Defensively we looked a bit disconnected with players coming up in ones and twos. Barrow got a lot of offloads away due to players coming up in ones. Their attempts to slow down the ruck paid off too with our lads being put on their backs too often. We also seem unable to use Scurr well at the moment - that needs work as he's our main go forward prop.

There was also some indecision dealing with kicks and a fair few total brain farts (Holmes at the back twice, Lilley passing into touch, Myers catching the ball within the 10, Doro losing his marbles). EOC has a lot of work to do. We could've easily blown it if we'd lost our discipline after the Doro sending off. Thankfully we kept our heads despite the late sin binning which was harsh IMO.

Thought Gaskell's kicking was a level above and when we targeted their left and Okunbor we had a lot of positives. He also knows how to draw and pass unlike a few of ours. With the pitch being so narrow running straight rather than toward touch is more important than ever. We ended up in touch more times than we should down to players not running straight enough. Thought Ott looked more at home as interchange hooker and he had two very good scoots late on that relieved the pressure. Appo worked hard from the off, Myers looked far more at home in the centre and Rogers seems to be getting some form back.

Re: Barrow (H) : Mon Jun 03, 2024 4:00 pm  

Was the Doro offence even that bad? I thought the ref, who was really poor, was swung by the Barrow players.