HALIFAX PANTHERS prop Brandon Douglas wants more of the same for both himself and his hometown team.
The club has concerns off the field, with a winding-up order brought by HMRC still to be settled and uncertainty over future ownership of The Shay, which Huddersfield Giants Chairman Ken Davy wants to buy from Calderdale Council.
But on it, things are going well under Kyle Eastmond, who was installed as coach in October and has taken his side to the top of the embryonic table with three wins from three.
After beating Douglas’ previous club Sheffield, then Barrow, the 27-year-old grabbed the late try that cemented the 18-10 victory at York, which avenged an 1895 Cup first-round defeat at the same ground seven days earlier and hoisted Halifax to the second-tier summit.
It came after an audacious ball strip and in front of the visiting supporters, and the frontrower quipped: “You could say I quote enjoyed the moment.
“Our fans have been brilliant all the time I have been here (he moved from Sheffield ahead of the 2024 campaign after loan spells from Castleford in both 2017 and 2018).
“At half-time, we talked about playing towards them and trying to use that to build some momentum, so to score such a crucial try was pretty special.”
Douglas was in Bradford’s Scholarship system before coming through Castleford’s Academy ranks, then had three years at Doncaster before his two at Sheffield.
He says he has benefitted from playing alongside stalwart forward Jacob Fairbank, and says the pack aim to carry on powering the Panthers as they look to maintain their Championship challenge.
“There’s me, Ronan Dixon, Joe Hird and Will Calcott rotating as props, and Bob (Fairbank) pulling it all together, and it’s been going well,” he explained.
“People were writing us off, and it’s still early, but we are enjoying ourselves and we all want to stick around at the top end of the table.”
Halifax host Featherstone on Sunday.