My synopsis of a day in Batley
Decent run up and down
Really enjoyed Batley's ground, only ever seen it in the wet before, and fans very friendly
A very good Broncos turn out
We played up hill in first half and competed really well for 20mins, as we were put under huge defensive pressure with ad hoc penalties against, and held strong.
Reverting to type, carved the Batley defence and failed to convert a 3 v 1, terrible execution.
Scored first, deservedly, little lucky but lets take anything, but self destruct with flimsy defence and an embarrassing inability to catch the bomb - albeit twice perfectly placed from the Batley half.
Soward's kicking from hand top class.
The error strewn show continued in the second half sloppy tries conceded (one from Bussey kicking out on full from a kick off), but pretty much every time we got decent field position we scored.
Batley players dropping like flies at critical times, to slow the play down.
Didnt like the refereeing, the new soldier bloke, seemed intent on pinging us every time he could and not Batley.
Heard a few of the players have been told there future lies elsewhere so maybe todays show was a partially down to this.
That all said - and I dont lije losing - but really pleased for Batley and their top 4 ambitions. I'd much prefer to see them and Fev in the top 4 and Bradford nowhere near. We can turn Batley over of that I have no doubt.
No Harrison, Foster, Naiqama, Eliab and Leatherbarrow 'rested', a new half back combination, not enough drive from the forwards, Macani and Walker out of their depth.
Not a good day, we shouldn't be losing to Batley but we did and deservedly so. We need to improve massively and player unrest is causing an issue, Hendo needs to address it pronto.
