Match thread: Championship Rd 24. Bradford v Featherstone Rovers. Sunday 3rd September 2023.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Might be on my own here but I thought that was a creditable effort.

We were misisng Ford, Kopczak, Taylor, Briscoe, Hau, Bussey, Hardcastle, and Yei, at least 6 of whom would make our first-choice 17, but we still clearly got the better of the collisions, and barring a 20-minute period in the 2nd half when we kept turning the ball over (as did they to be fair) we were mostly in control.

Can't read too much into games at Odsal because it's hard to look good in attack because of the narrowness of the pitch whereas conversely it's easier to defend, but job done, and League leaders' shield secured.

[POR]

More from Mr gledhill

The less said about the disgraceful scenes involving the Featherstone Rovers supporters fighting below the commentary gantry. I hope the @TheRFL and @FevRoversRLFC throw the book and ban the Featherstone supporters who are identified but what happened was unacceptable.

[lingaro]

Did I miss something but did it take until 20 minutes into the second half to get a six again?  I counted 4 in the first half for Bradford and one of those their player was on his back in a dominant tackle .  We seem to get tanked with the six again every week for no apparent reason.

A lot of pressure on those guys today and to win a league away at Bradford is a tough call.  Well done UTR

[roversspud]

3 minutes ago, lingaro said:

Did I miss something but did it take until 20 minutes into the second half to get a six again?  I counted 4 in the first half for Bradford and one of those their player was on his back in a dominant tackle .  We seem to get tanked with the six again every week for no apparent reason.

A lot of pressure on those guys today and to win a league away at Bradford is a tough call.  Well done UTR

To be fair to the ref, all of my group commented that we looked quite slow in clearing the ruck and that we were forcing the ref to make a decision. 

 

[Robin Evans]

36 minutes ago, POR said:

More from Mr gledhill

The less said about the disgraceful scenes involving the Featherstone Rovers supporters fighting below the commentary gantry. I hope the @TheRFL and @FevRoversRLFC throw the book and ban the Featherstone supporters who are identified but what happened was unacceptable.

Not dismissing any claims made by anyone else, but the credibility of that shi thouse is down the pan.

He is to journalism what Athur Harris was to town planning

A vile man. A crapola journo.

[elppaxr2i]

Dire game

Both teams too many errors & too many brainfarts - drop outs out on the full from us, knocking on scrums on the first tackle 

6 pts on the floor due to Gales brainfart a few mins into second half - think the floodgates might have opened if he passes on the inside there instead of being greedy

Not one that will love long in the memory - but we won it, perhaps because we were a forward interchange up when their lad went off after 15 mins & never came back? Took their toll on them in the heat i think

The whippy ice cream from the ice cream van was quite tasty so thats a positive to take away 

[J Phil Loxton]

1 hour ago, POR said:

More from Mr gledhill

The less said about the disgraceful scenes involving the Featherstone Rovers supporters fighting below the commentary gantry. I hope the @TheRFL and @FevRoversRLFC throw the book and ban the Featherstone supporters who are identified but what happened was unacceptable.

Most Bradford fans don't like him. He is a laugh a minute in his interviews. Thinks by bringing something up controversial about Fev will get the Bulls extra points with IMG. 

[Wolfey Rovers]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Might be on my own here but I thought that was a creditable effort.

We were misisng Ford, Kopczak, Taylor, Briscoe, Hau, Bussey, Hardcastle, and Yei, at least 6 of whom would make our first-choice 17, but we still clearly got the better of the collisions, and barring a 20-minute period in the 2nd half when we kept turning the ball over (as did they to be fair) we were mostly in control.

Can't read too much into games at Odsal because it's hard to look good in attack because of the narrowness of the pitch whereas conversely it's easier to defend, but job done, and League leaders' shield secured.

I totally agree TPH. Defence this year has been outstanding in a very good championship. Every one wants us to win by 40+ a game. But it's very satisfying keeping teams under 10 points conceded.

[The Phantom Horseman]

On 02/09/2023 at 10:20, The Phantom Horseman said:

As he hasn't answered this, I'll give the answer myself. This has sprung up not because of something Ford has said this week AFAIK, not because of something he has even said since he joined Fev, but because someone started stirring things up by putting a couple of pieces up on the "Bradford Bulls Live" Facebook page (which has over 4.5k followers and appears to be a vehicle for Gledhill from what I can tell)  including one post which simply said this:

James Ford: “The pitch at Odsal isn’t suitable, the facilities are below standard and the corners are dangerous.”

RFL/IMG: “Odsal Stadium currently meets minimum standards.”

Of course all the Bulls fans took to the bait immediately, because they understandably thought he'd said it in the build-up to this week's game whereas in fact it was in May 2022 when he was still York's coach, and it looks like Bradford have made more of an effort to cover those dangerous corner areas this year. Still, that's got the fans wound up, so job done.

 

It was good to see Fordy having a little chuckle in his post-game interview on RoversTV about Bradford's attempt to stir up their fanbase like this.

[Andrew Vause]

On 30/08/2023 at 23:35, roversspud said:

We've been good enough to get to two championship grand finals when promotion was on the table and four others when it wasn't, winning one. I can't remember Bradfud getting to any.

3 when promotion was on the table.

98 v Wakefield

19 v Toronto 

21 v Toulouse

 

 

 

[RobLambert]

2 hours ago, Robin Evans said:

Not dismissing any claims made by anyone else, but the credibility of that shi thouse is down the pan.

He is to journalism what Athur Harris was to town planning

A vile man. A crapola journo.

I'm bored of typing the same thing but where on earth am I looking each week.  Despite getting there 45 mins before ko (and having to listen to the #### head announcer who literally gave me headache) I didn't see any trouble at all.  Plus we were stood fairly close to the usual suspects when they came into the ground.  I know we've got some so and so's supporting the club who I personally wouldn't give the time of day to but it seems to me that some of our rival supporters just want the RFL to believe that watching a match against Rovers is dangerous.  Its getting ridiculous.  

[Michael Bates]

I didn't get to the game today but one thing that concerns me is how many handling errors we make. It would be understandable if we were emulating the Harlem Globetrotters or it was bucketing it down with rain but neither seems to be the case?

[Gooleboy]

4 hours ago, POR said:

More from Mr gledhill

The less said about the disgraceful scenes involving the Featherstone Rovers supporters fighting below the commentary gantry. I hope the @TheRFL and @FevRoversRLFC throw the book and ban the Featherstone supporters who are identified but what happened was unacceptable.

I take it that no Bradford fans were fighting then Mr Gledhill?

[Bullmania]

8 hours ago, RobLambert said:

I'm bored of typing the same thing but where on earth am I looking each week.  Despite getting there 45 mins before ko (and having to listen to the #### head announcer who literally gave me headache) I didn't see any trouble at all.  Plus we were stood fairly close to the usual suspects when they came into the ground.  I know we've got some so and so's supporting the club who I personally wouldn't give the time of day to but it seems to me that some of our rival supporters just want the RFL to believe that watching a match against Rovers is dangerous.  Its getting ridiculous.  

Just at the start of the second half 5 Fev fans walked round looking for trouble and 5 got escorted out the ground.

 

has for the game surprised with the knock on count by both teams in them conditions. I thought the Tom Holmes tackle was great but greedy by the rovers player only needed a little tip inside pass and was an easy one under the sticks. Thought arundel was unlucky at the other end for us. Overall think the score line was just about fair as said above think the big difference we was a forward down early on always struggling in that heat.

 

congrats on the league leaders shield disappointing rfl said nothing when Toronto, Toulouse and Leigh won it made a big thing of it. Probably cause Fev have upset the apple cart and Toulouse didn’t win it.

[Bullmania]

7 hours ago, Gooleboy said:

I take it that no Bradford fans were fighting then Mr Gledhill?

They defended there self yes.

 

the Fev 5 fans that did come round to start a fight was maybe 18 year olds.

[lingaro]

Heard that some will be back at school this week.  

[Fevrover]

13 hours ago, Robin Evans said:

Not dismissing any claims made by anyone else, but the credibility of that shi thouse is down the pan.

He is to journalism what Athur Harris was to town planning

A vile man. A crapola journo.

Who simply HATES EVERYTHING Featherstone!

[Fevrover]

2 hours ago, Bullmania said:

Just at the start of the second half 5 Fev fans walked round looking for trouble and 5 got escorted out the ground.

 

has for the game surprised with the knock on count by both teams in them conditions. I thought the Tom Holmes tackle was great but greedy by the rovers player only needed a little tip inside pass and was an easy one under the sticks. Thought arundel was unlucky at the other end for us. Overall think the score line was just about fair as said above think the big difference we was a forward down early on always struggling in that heat.

 

congrats on the league leaders shield disappointing rfl said nothing when Toronto, Toulouse and Leigh won it made a big thing of it. Probably cause Fev have upset the apple cart and Toulouse didn’t win it.

Good that they got kicked out ,i don't know why they waste their money travelling to 'see' the Rovers cos it sure ain't supporting them.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

2 hours ago, Bullmania said:

Just at the start of the second half 5 Fev fans walked round looking for trouble and 5 got escorted out the ground.

 

has for the game surprised with the knock on count by both teams in them conditions. I thought the Tom Holmes tackle was great but greedy by the rovers player only needed a little tip inside pass and was an easy one under the sticks. Thought arundel was unlucky at the other end for us. Overall think the score line was just about fair as said above think the big difference we was a forward down early on always struggling in that heat.

 

congrats on the league leaders shield disappointing rfl said nothing when Toronto, Toulouse and Leigh won it made a big thing of it. Probably cause Fev have upset the apple cart and Toulouse didn’t win it.

Thought Arundel was as guilty as Gale of being greedy - his winger had a walk in

[The Phantom Horseman]

A few more random thoughts on the game...

I'm not sure we're any nearer to knowing who will partner Ford at half back when he's fit. neither Aekins nor Chisholm stood out in attack yetserday, although half backs really aren't going to have much chance to shine on their narrow pitch. Chisholm actually defended as well as I can remember seeing him, I know Bradford reckon Arundel scored in the corner and we'll have to wait to see what thier video evidence shows but regardless Chisholm did well to stick with him as you might have expected Arundel to just brush him off.

We had an unusually ineffective spell from our bench, Moors, Davies and Jones are normally good impact players but I didn't think any of them were near their best yesterday and we looked much stronger during the periods Springer, Lockwood and Wildie were on. probably helped that Bradford didn't have Rogers to come back on after he failed his HIA, but that's happened to us a few times this season too.

Lee Greenwood's post-game reaction seemed to be "at least we showed we can compete with them" which was puzzling, I thought this was a perfect storm for Bradford, they came into the game on a roll after a few wins, were at home in front of a partisan crowd, were facing a Fev team that had 8 missing (including 6 likely starters) and this was a relatively meaningless game for Fev on the back of a well-publicised difficult week. I would have thought they would have been a bit disappointed with their performance.

If anyone wants a laugh, have a look at the comically one-eyed Telegraph & Argus match report at https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportlatest/23764679.bradford-bulls-narrow-defeat-featherstone-rovers/, which said the referee was "doing his best to make enemies with the home faithful".

No issues with the officiating from me but a bit rich to be complaining about the decisions that went against them when there was more than one questionable one when it looked like we should get the ball inside Bradford's 20m and possession was awarded to them instead. Bradford got a few home advantage calls I thought especially from the touch judges which is part of the game, one disadvantage to having most of the Fev fans situated where they were ie behind the sticks miles away from the action is that they're not in a position to react to events on the pitch and possibly influence the officials, that will be different with home-field advantage in the play-offs.

James Ford talking after the game suggested Johnno might be available for Newcastle but definitely for Toulouse which suggests he wants to put a marker down in that game even though it's 100% a dead rubber in every aspect bar the possibility that we might meet them again in the playoffs.

 

 

 

 

[J Phil Loxton]

44 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

A few more random thoughts on the game...

I'm not sure we're any nearer to knowing who will partner Ford at half back when he's fit. neither Aekins nor Chisholm stood out in attack yetserday, although half backs really aren't going to have much chance to shine on their narrow pitch. Chisholm actually defended as well as I can remember seeing him, I know Bradford reckon Arundel scored in the corner and we'll have to wait to see what thier video evidence shows but regardless Chisholm did well to stick with him as you might have expected Arundel to just brush him off.

We had an unusually ineffective spell from our bench, Moors, Davies and Jones are normally good impact players but I didn't think any of them were near their best yesterday and we looked much stronger during the periods Springer, Lockwood and Wildie were on. probably helped that Bradford didn't have Rogers to come back on after he failed his HIA, but that's happened to us a few times this season too.

Lee Greenwood's post-game reaction seemed to be "at least we showed we can compete with them" which was puzzling, I thought this was a perfect storm for Bradford, they came into the game on a roll after a few wins, were at home in front of a partisan crowd, were facing a Fev team that had 8 missing (including 6 likely starters) and this was a relatively meaningless game for Fev on the back of a well-publicised difficult week. I would have thought they would have been a bit disappointed with their performance.

If anyone wants a laugh, have a look at the comically one-eyed Telegraph & Argus match report at https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportlatest/23764679.bradford-bulls-narrow-defeat-featherstone-rovers/, which said the referee was "doing his best to make enemies with the home faithful".

No issues with the officiating from me but a bit rich to be complaining about the decisions that went against them when there was more than one questionable one when it looked like we should get the ball inside Bradford's 20m and possession was awarded to them instead. Bradford got a few home advantage calls I thought especially from the touch judges which is part of the game, one disadvantage to having most of the Fev fans situated where they were ie behind the sticks miles away from the action is that they're not in a position to react to events on the pitch and possibly influence the officials, that will be different with home-field advantage in the play-offs.

James Ford talking after the game suggested Johnno might be available for Newcastle but definitely for Toulouse which suggests he wants to put a marker down in that game even though it's 100% a dead rubber in every aspect bar the possibility that we might meet them again in the playoffs.

 

 

 

 

Thought the Ref started off strongly at first ignoring the Bradforward fans continuous shouts for forward passes (that they are quite famous for) and their calls for imaginary foul play at almost every tackle. He then did submit to their constant howling with the number of six agains they received (rightly or wrongly) It is difficult when you are segregated behind the posts to see such indiscretions. So it's something to look out for when watching the full match back. Had Gale realised that Jones was in open space to the line then the score would have put us fans more at ease but I suppose he did make amends later. They seemed to pepper Gale with high kicks in the first half but he took the challenge well and scooped the ball dead on one occasion when Bradford looked like scoring. As you say TPH with the amount of players missing from our starting 17 I think the players did well on an awkward pitch. I think Springer gets better every game.

[Bullmania]

2 hours ago, Fevrover said:

Good that they got kicked out ,i don't know why they waste their money travelling to 'see' the Rovers cos it sure ain't supporting them.

Very much agreed like I say the lads that come round was young and none had Fev rovers shirts on just giving a bad name for some young lads thinking there 10 men they then posted video marks they had on there arms and body from been removed no sympathy for them.

 

if your off to rugby go support your team makes you wonder that’s the youth coming through at Fev old historic club these meant to be the next set fans that paying to keep the club going like any other team.

[Bullmania]

16 hours ago, Robin Evans said:

Not dismissing any claims made by anyone else, but the credibility of that shi thouse is down the pan.

He is to journalism what Athur Harris was to town planning

A vile man. A crapola journo.

Some the stuff he says is idiotic he said last weekend be last time we play Swinton lions as that as they’ll be called Manchester lions he soon got shotdown by Swinton.

 

all these claims he makes he never @ in the team or person he’s on about.

 

very true most Bradford fans hate him

[sentoffagain2]

   I didn't go to the games as i had .a prior engagement that i couldn't get out of.We won and that's the main thing and my handicap was an eight point margin to us.We can make a few changes for Newcastle on Friday perhaps Lacans will get a game.It is worrying that we can't produce much from the half backs.I would have thought yesterday the short kicking game would enable us more chances with the close defences on a cramped pitch.Both tries conceded out wide again that is still a worry.Think i will take in Batley v Haven next Sunday both teams have plenty to play for.And after plenty of studying i can't come up with any Bradford players better than the ones we have.

[The Phantom Horseman]

5 hours ago, Bullmania said:

Some the stuff he says is idiotic he said last weekend be last time we play Swinton lions as that as they’ll be called Manchester lions he soon got shotdown by Swinton.

 

all these claims he makes he never @ in the team or person he’s on about.

 

very true most Bradford fans hate him

Fair play to you for that. I don't doubt that you're right and that most Bradford fans do have no truck with him.

He does still have an influence though especially on the easily led. Regarding his comments (assuming it is him on the Bradford Bulls live FB page) stirring the pot by referring to James Ford's comments about the pitch and Lee Greenwood's response...as previously mentioned, anyone reading it would think they were made this week not nearly 18 months ago when Ford was coaching a different club.

The thing is...this statement got well over 100 likes and 88 replies and really stirred the pot up before Sunday's game.

Of course I'm not saying that the 100+ people who liked the comment are representative of all Bradford fans.

Edited September 4, 2023 by The Phantom Horseman