Match thread: Championship Round 20. Featherstone Rovers v Batley. Saturday 29th July 2023.

[haskey]

I suspect he is being rested.If Hall not in the 17 will Hankinson take the kicks?

[POR]

11 minutes ago, haskey said:

I suspect he is being rested.If Hall not in the 17 will Hankinson take the kicks?

NO Dan  Smith 

[Monkeymagic22]

Killer getting married in France and is probably due a break. Great replacement in Aekins. So I’d go with Astley and Chiss in the half backs.  

[gazza77]

 

 

Aekins back to full back then...

[POR]

[The Phantom Horseman]

23 minutes ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

Killer getting married in France and is probably due a break.

I agree, long-term injury last year and then getting married this year, the poor fella just can't catch a break.

[The Phantom Horseman]

42 minutes ago, haskey said:

I suspect he is being rested.If Hall not in the 17 will Hankinson take the kicks?

Chisholm the obvious choice to be kicker if Hall doesn't play I'd say.

[POR]

1 hour ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

Killer getting married in France 

Congratulations Killer but you missed the chance of a great day in the clubhouse

                                                                  

 

[jamescolin]

How do you see the line up then? Will we play Hau and Longstaff in the opening or have them on the bench? Hankinson or Chisholm for the goal kicking?

[lingaro]

59 minutes ago, jamescolin said:

How do you see the line up then? Will we play Hau and Longstaff in the opening or have them on the bench? Hankinson or Chisholm for the goal kicking?

I'd bring both in from the bench against tired defence,  both strong runners with footwork. 

[philcow]

I hope we put a marker down and hammer them fingers crossed.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Solid/workmanlike performance tonight, not spectacular but Batley did what they invariably do ie stuck at it and wouldn't go away.

Most pleasing part of the performance was undoubtedly the number if repeat sets that we turned away on our own line, there was one spell on the first half where Batley had I think 4 sets inside our 10m without looking like scoring. 

We did get exposed a couple of times out wide and that remains a bit of a concern.

Otherwise job done. I thought Wildie was absolutely outstanding in his 25-minute spell in the first half, Hau looks more dangerous every week and our outside backs did a great job in yardage sets.

Not a massively productive game for our halves but it wasn't that kind of game.

Batley had a dig and we all know they won't roll over if we meet them in the semi or final. 

Oh, and we've officially clinched our place in the play-offs 

 

 

[haskey]

Good post PH although I thought Thaler gave them a higher % of 50/50 calls., and I agree that we were badly exposed on the flanks.

What  I do admire about Batley . they did  not resort to underhand tactics ie Swinton , Sheffield. and played to the end.

Not a spectacular game but we did enough to win without being in any way likely to lose.

[Daft old hooker]

7 minutes ago, haskey said:

Good post PH although I thought Thaler gave them a higher % of 50/50 calls., and I agree that we were badly exposed on the flanks.

What  I do admire about Batley . they did  not resort to underhand tactics ie Swinton , Sheffield. and played to the end.

Not a spectacular game but we did enough to win without being in any way likely to lose.

Apart from Hooley’s play acting to get the penalty, which once he got it jumped to his feet and ran to join the play.

[haskey]

Yes fair enough DOH

[sentoffagain2]

    Well i said 16+ and 20 points was a fair reflection of our superiority.Knew that this years pack who have bossed the middle all season would have the edge over Batleys forwards unlike last season.Our middle defence has been excellent all season but we seem clueless at sorting the problems with our outside defence Sean and Ford need to find a solution before the play offs.Don't think the half backs gelled i would have played Astley at 7 and Chizzy 6.How many passes did our wingmen receive ? i can't remember a clear running chance.Although Ford should provide better distribution when he returns.Wildie did have a good game when on working hard and taking his try well.Like Taylor at 13 he is a good passer and more nimble than Smith who backed up well to score his try in the second half.

[jamescolin]

Very good defensive performance. Need a bit more fluctuation in attack.

[Fevrover]

10 hours ago, haskey said:

Good post PH although I thought Thaler gave them a higher % of 50/50 calls., and I agree that we were badly exposed on the flanks.

What  I do admire about Batley . they did  not resort to underhand tactics ie Swinton , Sheffield. and played to the end.

Not a spectacular game but we did enough to win without being in any way likely to lose.

On Batley site a couple aren't happy with Thaler and one even says he gave Fev everything lol.

[gazza77]

23 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

On Batley site a couple aren't happy with Thaler and one even says he gave Fev everything lol.

When fans of neither side are happy, it's usually a sign the ref got most calls right.

[J Phil Loxton]

34 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

On Batley site a couple aren't happy with Thaler and one even says he gave Fev everything lol.

When the opposition are given 24 play the balls in a row on your own line you tend to question the ref rather than your own indiscipline. The defence was absolutely outstanding in that period. I've no qualms with Thaler but we need to look at the reasons why we gave away the penalties and  six agains while Batley were on our line. Someone on Facebook said against better opposition we would have been in trouble. But as far as I'm concerned there is only one other team that I would class as better opposition. So well done Fev.

Edited July 30, 2023 by J Phil Loxton

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, Fevrover said:

On Batley site a couple aren't happy with Thaler and one even says he gave Fev everything lol.

Saw that and had to have a laugh at it. A textbook piece of disgruntled fan-whining. All the components are there...

"We made it easy for them" Check
"The ref gave them everything" Check
"They're not all that good anyway" Check

Most Fev and Batley fans are fairly gracious in defeat to each other given the mutual respect between the teams, but there's always one...

[Fevrover]

1 minute ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Saw that and had to have a laugh at it. A textbook piece of disgruntled fan-whining. All the components are there...

"We made it easy for them" Check
"The ref gave them everything" Check
"They're not all that good anyway" Check

Most Fev and Batley fans are fairly gracious in defeat to each other given the mutual respect between the teams, but there's always one...

Always !

[sentoffagain2]

    Batley like other teams tried to knock the door down down the middle and they have the pack to play that way.But this season our forwards have defended magnificently and what an improvement from last season when we couldn't match Leigh and Batley.I do think this pack would have had the edge over last seasons Leigh middle.Next week at Fax if Killer is fit after his honeymoon efforts i think we will be back to Chizzy and Aekins in the halves.But we shall see can't understand taking a young player on loan and not giving him 4 or 5 games to see what he can do.

[Fevrover]

1 minute ago, sentoffagain2 said:

    Batley like other teams tried to knock the door down down the middle and they have the pack to play that way.But this season our forwards have defended magnificently and what an improvement from last season when we couldn't match Leigh and Batley.I do think this pack would have had the edge over last seasons Leigh middle.Next week at Fax if Killer is fit after his honeymoon efforts i think we will be back to Chizzy and Aekins in the halves.But we shall see can't understand taking a young player on loan and not giving him 4 or 5 games to see what he can do.

Possibly because he's not staying till end of season ?

[Wolfey Rovers]

No sterner test than Batley. Thorn in our ass. I rate them very highly! I'm glad we came out the other end the victors. Chizzy needs to assert himself more if he's gonna be the Messiah everyone said on FB. But other than that. Great performance!