I agree with all the above. A frustrating afternoon. I always felt we could have won but everything the lads did never quite came off. At times I thought we looked unorganised in the middle, especially when the ball was spilt by us or Batley and we picked it up. No one took control and directed the team.
Again Mr Stokes seemed to have a different view to most of us but that isn't why we lost. Along way to go and no drama needed at his stage.

Same mistakes as the other games. Not taking our chances, Silly offloads and forcing the pass when no need. Giving away silly penalties as well. We know Stokes is useless, but we do not help ourselves at times. We do not need to score a try off every set. Getting tackled on the last tackle, is stupid really. Good set with various options and if nothing is on, then put a kick in, that either sees the opposition get tackled close to their own line or force a drop out. Need to sort the kicking out on the last as well. Johnson needs to play in the halves. Neither Moore or Murrell have impressed so far this year. Changes need to be made both in the forwards and backs for next week.

Disagree. G Moore had a decent game. Murell is now having to play on our right where most team don't attack naturally so it's a change for him. Maybe try Johnny with more. Sharp was good bringing ball back out but didn't link in the line well in attack so we have work to do there. But we need to complete our sets and try and get some repeat sets. 2nd rowers kicking in 3rd or 4th tackle surely isn't in the plan.

I think that's a tad unfair on Moore and Murrell individually, but there's no real sign of a partnership developing. It's worth giving it a go with Gaz and Jonno in the halves, particularly when we come up against strong "workmanlike" teams such as Batley. The very best teams can win regardless, but when there's not a lot between teams, it's the subtle changes that make the difference.

I'm sure RM considered all of this, and made his team decisions as he thought best before the game. Tbh, the game could have gone either way, and we certainly bombed a few good positions and made some poor decisions at times today. On another day, we could have won at a canter.

Fair do's to Batley though. They had a game plan, stuck to it, and it worked today.

Very disappointed after that game, we lost to the better side (just) in a very tight and not very exciting game it was a tackleathon.
We are not firing in attack against the better defences like today, Batley are a very hard working team, nowt special but respect the ball and grind out the results with Brambani just doing his job, putting the kicks away making sure the yards were always gained with bombs that we dealt with very well to be honest then he took his chance when it came along.
We panicked at times and Scott got caught far too easy today, he works his socks off but is he too slow now? The big worry is our pack which has been excellent over the last year met its match today, Batley had a very big pack with quick dummy runners and Mitch did not come off today whilst Dane tried hard as ever but he go well hit hard only breaking the line a couple of times.
That was a big defeat and makes next week a must win game now, maybe we will come stronger while Batley may have peaked early?
Time will tell, we came good last year?
Oh and as for our friend Stokes well he had one of his better games today but still made two calls that could have changed the game, the disallowed try and not giving us the penalty after Rettie threw our man to the floor???

For the first time today in a long while I thought we looked tired and a bit flat, our usual standout guys didnt have bad games I just dont think anyone stood out. I too agree Moore has been very good for us this season and would love to see him and Jonno in the halves for us which you would imagine would terrify teams but today was slow and pedestrian. How you can make so many clean breaks and not once have someone on the runners shoulder is beyond me.

I thought Batley would go well this year but if we are to make the top 4 we have to be beating them at home, I certainly did not think we would be struggling after just 4 games but there is certainly pressure on now especially with London and Leigh up next which on current form we will not win.

fax made about 4 clean breaks that faltered at the last line of batleys defence as there was no one in easy passing distance. poor backing up of the players that made the breaks. I think the moore try not given for yet another forward pass along with the many others George saw. how a touch judge enters the field for what he sees as a penalty then game just restarts with next play in hard to understand. player did not have the ball and was thrown to the ground. penalty.

Probably right about being unfair on both Murrell and Moore, though its frustrating to see the attack struggling and for whatever reason us bombing so many chances with stupid forward passes etc. Maybe its that the partnership is struggling and against a good pack like Batley, we go in to panic mode and pushing passes etc when no need. Sheffield game for me was similar, that we seem to panic if we dont score and push passes and maybe try to do too much. Batley are very well coached and have quality players. We just look lost if things do not go our way.

Our last tackle options were poor today, Murrell is not quick enough in a game like this one was and I'm sure Jonno would have made a bit of a difference. Much as I don't rate Georgie Boy I didn't think he was that bad today, Fairbank was never square all the time he was on so was going to get pulled at some stage. If the passes were forward then we should learn to pass but that is usually down to the TJ not ref. The Rettie incident, to be fair it was nothing and TJ overreacted. We need to improve, simple as.

I felt for the hbs on both sides today and I think something has to be done about the play the ball speed. In every game I've seen this season it has been far too slow which has made it very difficult to break down the opposition or the creative players to really show there skills. That leads to games like today, tough forward battles with very little the hbs can do to make breaks or influence games, as the defensive lines are always set and ready for them. Thanks for the hospitality, I was sat with some cracking fax fans. Good luck for the rest of the season.

The game was won by the better team who played to their strengths and are bang in form. Not often you see our forwards coming out second best and credit to Batley's forwards they gave Brambani a great platform to dictate the game. We are making the breaks but have to have players in that are there to finish off. We need Miles at fullback, Sharpe on the wing and Johnstone at half back and certainly not going out allegedly on loan or off to Bradford- as the terrace talk would have us believe! Need to get this win one lose one monkey off our back quickly or we are going to miss the cut.
Will be interesting to hear RM's view at the Supporters Trust Fans Forum on Wednesday night.
Some tough games coming up which we will need to show more creativity and clinical finishing to get us back up the table(currently 7th!)
Keep the faith .

Correct.

We win as a team and we lose as a team.

Congratulations to Batley who were relentless. There's always a post mortem and here's mine;

* we need MG back at FB so Will can be higher up the pitch.
* Jonno and Moore at halves where does that leave Muzza
* we seemed to offload always going backwards or snatching at plays
* sometimes our back line is so deep and static
* do we need to have a look at Brandon Moore
* we seemed totally in control in the first half then a couple of brain farts later and we go in 6-8!!

I'm certain that if we score a couple of those length of the pitch tries we'd have broken them.......that's sport eh.

UTFAX

Ps not bagging the guys

Pps

Thought our kicking out of hand was pretty average and we didn't pressure their kicks either.....

A nice summer day, a firm green carpet to play on, Greenwood at FB, Will on the wing, Johnno and Gaz Moore in the halves, Muzza at loose forward, Grix in the second row, plenty of good footy to come.