Wildie playing out of position was very good I thought; kept things moving and had a few good kicks too.

Thank god you said this! I was just reading this forum and wondering if I’d watched a different first half? In that first 20 minutes we played more attacking rugby than I have seen in the past 2-3 games. We actually used dummy runners and tested Batley’s inside defence. We tried offloading more as you stated.

The one thing I thought we didn’t do quite so well was play the conditions better. I’d have liked to have seen more kicks bouncing into touch than the up and under’s we were doing especially after Scott caught the first 2-3.

Agreed on the defensive effort. In relation to Ryan the only thing I think he lacks at FB is the poachers instinct of a Withers or McNally. But his positional play is great, as is his last man defence.

Roche actually played okay today and took the ball in well. Oakes showed why he was a wingers centre and reclaimed some form that he had in 2017. His reading of Batley’s attack was great too! DFG was brilliant today and finished well! There were one or two instances where I thought Farrell could have moved the ball on but he took the tackle, but tbf he made the right decision and played the conditions.

Overall a very pleasing performance. Great to get the 0 for Batley. But let’s not get excited. Still lots to improve on. But put’s us in a good position.

Looking forward to Keyes, Evans and Hitchcox returning to reserves duty next week!

Agree about Oakes. Interesting to see what happens when Evans is back fit.

With the youthful squad Kear is building, the disruption in the halves (partially self inflicted) and several key injuries, I think remaining well in the play off mix at this stage is a real positive.

We need to keep improving but I’m excited for the back end of the season, especially if Keyes and Jy are back fit and firing.

I think the team seemed more balanced today and I thought we did well under the conditions. The zero was the icing on the cake. Anyone else notice JK was up watching from the South bank and not in the dug out.

I noticed JK wasn't on the touch line in front of the dug out where he normally stands but I was situated too far from the Southbank to spot him there.

From the photos I have seen - there looked to be nobody there.

Was there less than 3000 spectators?

If so, I wonder why the attendances are falling..

The terraces were pretty empty, but to be fair I reckon the weather had an effect yesterday.

I sat in my car until 20 mins before kick off and in that time there were 4 cars with bulls fans who pulled up, checked the weather and went back out the gate. Guessing even more didn’t set foot out the door at all,

The rugby recently on show would have probably put a fair few off. But yesterday it was probably due to such bad weather at the start.

Haven't heard an attendance announced. Downpour halh hour before game will have put some of. Touchdown was busy first half as a lot watched from inside until rain stopped. Main stand was noticeably fuller than usual too so think a fair few paid to upgrade and sit under the roof.

This was my train of thought...

Its been a prolonged run of dour displays and I wondered when/if it would begin to tell...

Have to say that I'm not as up beat as most on here.

We have lost out head of youth, our best upcoming youngster and Ethan Ryan and my suspicion is all three are down to lack of funds.

We lost Damian Irvine to Bradford PA and he immediately secures new sponsorship for them - with their owner (who WAS interested in Bulls) setting a budget of £1.4 million for a team!

We end up with Chalmers - no pot to pea in, Duffy and RHP - with Nigel Wood in the background for some reason...

Why did Damian Irving move to Bradford PA from us?

Just find the back office stuff depressing - but hey ho - glass half empty and all that.

Oh, and yes, the style of play? Doesn't bring feet through the gate - which adds to the financial problem bit.....

It was quiet on the terraces because the club allowed supporters to go and sit in the stand at no additional cost. The stand was far busier than normal.

The low crowd I think was down to the weather (which bizarrely turned out brilliant once we kicked off) and the dour rugby recently. It’s shame we didn’t kick on from the Leeds game a bit more but I suppose the games have still been close. I enjoyed yesterday's game though, even despite the efforts of the bloke behind me that moaned non stop for 80mins.

Loss of JB and Ethan is a blow but neither was going to stay forever and we’ve had very good service out of them. On Irvine that’s a loss but the back office has been pretty poor since 2017 including while he was in it. Fact is with Chalmers in charge I think we’re pretty much stuck where we are. Whoever is covering the losses better keep doing it (Big Nige?) because Chalmers can’t.

What the club needs is some new blood in the marketing and office management setup. It appears we pay peanuts so might struggle to attract more capable people and so the same folk keep popping up or carrying on as they have for years.

If there was over 3k there yesterday then I’m Ernest Ward.

No you're not Ernest Ward - there was 2700 (ish) there - but they bull it up to save face!

Agreed. Our last few games of the season are all very winnable. So if we can keep within touching distance of the top 5, with the likes of Evans, Jy & Keyes back we could sneak in that top 5 and then anything could happen.

Unfortunately I couldn't go yesterday but I saw a highlight of DFJ's try (think it may have been his 2nd) where Ryan passes to Oakes onto DFJ. The centre play from Oakes is absolutely class. He barely touched the ball and provided an accurate pass for his wingman. It had to be bang on and that quick for of a pass for DFJ to score. Superb centre play.

Oakes is a very classy player, he's impressed me from the very first game I saw him play. A proper winger's centre, that's three tries in recent weeks he's been instrumental in - the great try Milnes scored against Fax was thanks to his quick hands and two more again yesterday.