Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 8:45 am  

I thought we were the better team first half and unlucky not to be winning, very poor second half with poor discipline and silly mistakes costing us big time. Without taking anything away from Bradford but we absolutely gifted them 3 tries from dropped balls or ridiculous passes.

I am sorry but without Ridyard we look a rudderless ship, lacking or executing ineffective attacking structures. Scott Murrell has proven time and time again that you do not need to be blessed with pace to impact a game.

Jonny Pownall needs a long hard look at himself. He may have been harshly penalised but at 12-12 it is unforgivable to be sent off again for mouthing off at the officials. Bradford got a foot hold on the game during his self enforced 10 min absence. i would drop him.

We have a bit of work to do, but with the greatest of respect Bradford are not a great side.

On the plus point, I thought Toby Adamson was superb as was Luke Douglas. My visits to Odsal also bring back fond memories of being amongst the 102,000 crammed into Odsal for the Challenge Cup replay in the early 50's. I went on a coach with my father departing from Abbey Lane, Westleigh.

They were the days

Re: Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 8:55 am  

Harold Rigby Jnr wrote:

I thought we were the better team first half and unlucky not to be winning, very poor second half with poor discipline and silly mistakes costing us big time. Without taking anything away from Bradford but we absolutely gifted them 3 tries from dropped balls or ridiculous passes.

I am sorry but without Ridyard we look a rudderless ship, lacking or executing ineffective attacking structures. Scott Murrell ha sproven time and time again that you do not need to be blessed with pace to impact a game.

Jonny Pownall needs a long hard look at himself. He may have been harshly penalised but at 12-12 it is unforgivable to be sent off again for mouthing off at the officials. Bradford got a foot hold on the game during his self enforced 10 min absence. i would drop him.

We have a bit of work to do, but with the greatest of respect Bradford are not a great side.

On the plus point, I thought Toby Adamson was superb as was Luke Douglas. My visits to Odsal also bring back fond memories of being amongst the 102,000 crammed into Odsal for the Challenge Cup replay in the early 50's. I went on a coach with my father departing from from Abbey Lane, Westleigh.

They were the days

I thought the Bulls defensive effort was what won us the game yesterday, thought Leigh looked good in 1st half.

As for Pownall he was sin-binned at Bulls a few times for mouthing off at a decision.

Think Bulls don't look too great at the moment due to injuries. Winger at FB today, Hooker in Halfs.2nd row starting at Hooker. Loose Forward playing Prop. In our 8 games this year we have had 5 different HB partnerships. All the above would affect attacking cohesion.

Re: Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:10 am  

Harold Rigby Jnr wrote:

I thought we were the better team first half and unlucky not to be winning, very poor second half with poor discipline and silly mistakes costing us big time. Without taking anything away from Bradford but we absolutely gifted them 3 tries from dropped balls or ridiculous passes.

I am sorry but without Ridyard we look a rudderless ship, lacking or executing ineffective attacking structures. Scott Murrell has proven time and time again that you do not need to be blessed with pace to impact a game.

Jonny Pownall needs a long hard look at himself. He may have been harshly penalised but at 12-12 it is unforgivable to be sent off again for mouthing off at the officials. Bradford got a foot hold on the game during his self enforced 10 min absence. i would drop him.

We have a bit of work to do, but with the greatest of respect Bradford are not a great side.

On the plus point, I thought Toby Adamson was superb as was Luke Douglas. My visits to Odsal also bring back fond memories of being amongst the 102,000 crammed into Odsal for the Challenge Cup replay in the early 50's. I went on a coach with my father departing from Abbey Lane, Westleigh.

They were the days

I agree with all you say there Harold. (apart from being amongst the 102,000 back in the 30's - sorry, 50's! ) That game was there to be won, with the hard work apparently done in the first half, against the strong (and cold!!) wind. We never seemed to get going in that second 40 though, and then went to pieces. Looking at the 'highlights', Pownall didn't seem to be in touch, when catching the penalty kick, and may have been aggrieved at that, but his reaction was downright stupid. He has to learn! Incidentally, have a look at Ethan Ryan's try from dummy half, immediately afterwards. The ptb was, at most twelve inches from the touchline, and Ryan went round that short side. Did he really get the ball down, before going in touch? That said, the better team clearly won.

If I must criticise refs, it would be for the way they award a raft of penalties in one direction (ours in the first half) then the other direction (theirs early in the second half) and then back in the initial direction. (ours towards the end) Are they trying to create excitement, through pressure? Bradford reacted well, to those early decisions, and we didn't react well, to the second half decisions. There is a (simple) lesson to be learned there!

[Bullseye]

Re: Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:36 am  

We had a similar performance in terms of discipline when we lost a winnable game at Sheffield earlier in the season. We got caught up in a battle with the ref and let our frustration put us off our game. Even when the man in the middle is wrong, he’s right because you’re never going to get him to reverse his decision. Getting on his case isn’t going to help either as he’s never going to give you a 50/50 decision if you’re making his life a misery.

Pownall’s got form for this kind of thing. I saw him get a stupid yellow card at Fax which went a long way to costing you the game that day.

Re: Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 11:55 am  

Fair to say that Pownall wont be affecting the membership numbers at Mensa

Re: Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 12:53 pm  

Agreed, but he's our only player with pace.

Re: Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 1:48 pm  

Alan wrote:

Incidentally, have a look at Ethan Ryan's try from dummy half, immediately afterwards. The ptb was, at most twelve inches from the touchline, and Ryan went round that short side. Did he really get the ball down, before going in touch?

Yes he did, we were too busy moaning to the ref and touch judge as the player before knocked on.

All Bradford's points came far too easy, from our mistakes, stupid penalties etc.

Re: Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 1:57 pm  

Kennedy wrote:

Agreed, but he's our only player with pace.

You're not wrong there, my biggest disappointment so for this season has been Marsh how slow is he? He had the line begging at one point and failed to score, and when they broke 90 meters down his wing from a stupid kick by Hood he was no where to be seen, only McNally and Pownall put the effort in to chase him down.

Re: Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 2:52 pm  

Overall I thought Bradford were the more organised & better team over the 80.
2 tries from interceptions, 1 near full length picked off the boot laces from our kick near their line. Bradford much quicker in the 3 quarters.

Early doors even going behind I thought we looked relatively comfortable & in control but Bradford turned it around to their credit.
I really like our forwards despite being light by comparison with most *though still not happy about Emmit*.
We are 2 very good & big forwards & 1 fast wing & 1 quality centre shy of being a top 4 side IMHO.

Re: Bradford match : Mon Mar 25, 2019 5:42 pm  

TBH, the way you guys were playing, I got confused over which side was which as it was a very similar performance to the ones the Bulls have been giving recently.

Some nice attacking movement up the field until you get to around the 20m mark then have no idea what to do next which leads to either an error or a bad final play.

I think if your lads had played the game instead of debating with the ref for everything, you'd probably have come away with something yesterday