Bradford Bulls aim to overcome their inconsistent form and the problems posed by their notoriously small playing surface to clinch a big win over promotion hopefuls Featherstone in front of the Premier Sports cameras on Monday night, (April 25).
It’s a third successive home game for the Bulls, but defeats by Barrow and twelve-man Halifax have put pressure on coach John Kear, who points to this season’s 50 per cent win record as evidence that it’s not all doom and gloom at Odsal.
Simon Grix, his opposite number at Halifax, said the tight dimensions of the playing surface at the famous ground, which incorporates a stock-car track, played into his side’s hands as they clinched a 20-17 victory, despite the first-minute dismissal of prop Jacob Fairbank.
“I think if we’d been on the nice, wide surface at The Shay, they might have stretched us a bit more and taken us out,” admitted Grix.
Meanwhile Bradford halfback Jordan Lilley has acknowledged Bradford’s biggest wins this year, at Dewsbury, London Broncos in the Challenge Cup and Workington, have come away from home.
“I don’t like to blame the pitch too much, but it’s only 55 metres wide,” he told the Telegraph and Argus.
“We found against Barrow that trying to shift it, you end up on the sidelines and teams can control that.
“It’s never going to be an expansive, really good game on here, it’s one for the middles.
“I see fans saying we play boring rugby, and that we need to throw the ball, but it’s hard on there.
“We’ve got a lot of home games though, so we need to find a way to win on this pitch.
“Hopefully we can fix it up against Featherstone, because we’ll need to be nine out of ten to even get near them.”
Rovers, coached by former Bradford forward Brian McDermott, have dropped only one point in eight games, in a 20-20 draw at Batley.
In their last two games, at home to Sheffield and Barrow, they chalked up a combined 102 points and conceded just 24.
Bradford have appealed to supporters to stick with Kear and his squad.
The club said in a statement: “We appreciate and understand your frustrations following recent results.
“A return of four wins from eight is not where any of us wanted to be at this stage of the season, but rest assured everyone at the club is working hard to get us where we need to be.
“We have high expectations, like you all, and we are not meeting those expectations currently, but it is a long old season.
“In times like this, it is important we stick together and as a club we are all eager to reverse the fortunes as soon as possible and that will only happen by rolling our sleeves up and getting stuck into the task at hand.
“There is no time to feel sorry for ourselves.”
Leeds second row Sam Walters is expected to feature for Bradford on dual-registration.
Bradford 21-man squad: Elliott Kear, Matty Dawson-Jones, Kieran Gill, Dec Patton, Jordan Lilley, Thomas Doyle, Steve Crossley, Aaron Murphy, Sam Scott, Ben Evans, Jordan Baldwinson, Brad England, Samy Kibula, David Foggin-Johnston, Elliot Hall, Joe Burton, AJ Wallace, Sam Hallas, Sam Walters, Lewis Camden, Michael Hoyle.
Featherstone 21-man squad: Brandon Pickersgill, Luke Briscoe, Craig Hall, Gareth Gale, Craig Kopczak, Connor Jones, James Lockwood, Brett Ferres, Jesse Sene-Lefao, Jack Bussey, Matty Wildie, John Davies, Junior Moors, Ben Hellewell, Callum Field, Morgan Smith, Luke Cooper, Loui McConnell, Ryley Jacks, Mark Kheirallah, Ben Mathiou.
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