It is no co-incidence that Siejka was back and we looked a much worse side. Maybe he can rapidly improve and become worth having but so far in the few games he has played, for mine he has wavered somewhere between anonymous to liability. If he can play, then we haven't seen any of it yet. If in future he proves he can play then the question would be why he is poor at the moment. I would agree that he defended ok today but his defence isn't the main reason he is on the pitch. I have faith in Jimmy and so assume he must have seen something in Siejka that I haven't.

Overall, can't blame everything on him, we looked pretty disjointed at times and do try to force the game too much, Batley put up a very commendable effort and well played to them. They were a testament to Kear's ability to coach organisation and teamwork.

When you bring in as many new players as we have its inevitable that some of them just will not work out. Its not necessarily a reflection on the coach its just the way it is. Sir Alex Ferguson once said that if only 1 out of 3 signings he made were flops then he would be happy.

The real test for Lowes is to qet the balance right between giving new players time to settle and deciding in good time which players are going to give us the best chance against the SL teams. I reckon he'll spend the next 7 or 8 games juggling the team about before it becomes make your mind up time.

The elephant in the room regarding Siejka is that he wasn't the club's first choice for 7 when we were still recruiting. We didn't get the scrum half we wanted and so ended up settling for Siejka. I can't remember how much time we had left to recruit someone else after the GoB farce, but I can't help but feel that Siejka was signed because we didn't really have any other options.

I thought that the amount of changes forced on us by injury played a big part in us looking so disjointed. The backline was almost completely different to the previous week. When we moved the ball wide it was far from slick and easy to defend against. Runners were heading sideways and it was no wonder Ulugia ended up in touch a few times as he got the ball with nowhere to go. It was poor that we kept doing that. I hope Purtell and Baille are back soon as I wasn't convinced at all by Henry and I thought Shaw is better at fullback.

On Siejka I thought he was pretty anonymous which isn't ideal for a half back. As FA said he defended ok but in attack he was poor. He doesn't seem to be able to move the ball quick enough. Many times yesterday he takes a pass and then pauses to feint to run then passes without fooling anyone and only serving to give slow ball to the men outside him. Our last tackle options were a bit rubbish yesterday too, some poor kicks. Gaskell was trying to have an influence and ended up at dummy half too often. We looked far less fluid than in previous weeks and were almost caught out.

In the forwards I thought that Olbison had a good game, he kept it simple and defended really well. O'Brien was well watched and our props didn't look as impressive as in recent weeks. I thought we were eclipsed in the 2nd half by the Batley forwards who executed a really simple but effective game plan. I was surprised Lauaki didn't get more minutes going downhill in the first half. Fleming looks a bit off the pace at the moment.

Williams took his try very well and Shaw's goalkicking was superb. Had Siejka been kicking we'd have lost for certain.

Moving on I can see us giving Siejka a few more games, if there's no improvement then I'd move Mullaney to halfback and Shaw to fullback.

Think you may well be right with that. The main downside is maybe that it would leave us boxed in a bit if we got injuries to Mullaney or Gaskell. I know we have one or two players who have 'half' on their CV, but none we've actually seen there, let alone who have had any chance to get any sort of partnership.

We were very very fortunate to win yesterday. Batley must be kicking themselves, though they shouldn't, as they were superb imo.

From our pov we bombed far too many chances in the first half but, on the positive side, didn't get too rattled and, unlike at Leigh, we didn't try to respond to Batley's [this time, wholly legal] physicality by fighting fire with fire. Our more measured approach turned out to be the correct one, though we need to learn that you don't [ihave[/i to score on [ievery[/i set..

In many respects this is just the kind of game we needed - the games will be very intense in the middle eights and the more practice we get in these qualifying games the better.

Pretty much agree with all this post.

I genuinely don't know what anyone sees in Adam Henry. Seems to have no clue how a centre should play. Ulugia could have had a hat trick if Henry had any idea about getting reasonably close to the line before passing the ball. Instead he catches it, and immediately just passes it to his winger, leaving the oppositon defence with plenty of time to line up a tackle and push Ulugia into touch. Ulugia did his best in the circumstances, but he was given way too much to do by inept centre play. Adrian Purtell is 10 times better and I think we really missed him and his hard running yesterday. If Purtell, Baile or Blythe were fit, I can't see how Henry would get a shirt. I'd even be tempted to put Uaisele in the centres and leave Ulugia on the wing if none of the other centres are available next week. In fact, I'd pick Walshaw at centre before Henry.

Siejka I agree, Jimmy must have seen something that he's so far failed to show. Very very poor yesterday and although you need to give him time, how long do you give before you accept he's not performing and is a liability to the team? Hopefully he steps it up soon and starts to show why he was signed (other than him being the only one available after O'Brien pulled out).

I thought Batley's big blokes were superb. Keegan Hirst and Alex Rowe especially made our defence look like an amateur team at times. Considering our front row isn't short of size in the likes of Sidlow, Tahraoui, Fleming & Lauaki, they were completely dominated too often.

Echo the idea that we were very lucky. Batley deserved more than they got out of that match.

Great game for the neutrals
Enjoyed the day disapointed we didnt hang on for the win but credit to the Bulls who never gave up
Bulls fans were great clapped our players off at the end, nice to see.
Good luck until we meet again

Our injury list is crazy right now. I count TEN players missing that could all stake a claim for being in our starting 17.

Mellor
Petersen
Uaisele
Purtell
Blythe
Baile
Ferguson
Addy
Walker
Davies

I think that shows the strength in depth we have. How many of our rival clubs who we will be battling for promotion with, could have 10 injuries and still put a strong team. Come the super 8's, our squad should still be pretty fresh.

Also should have added that it was really great to be at Batley, it's a cracking tight little ground, the atmosphere was brilliant - even with a sp crowd of only 2000=odd, - and the Batley team did them credit. as did their fans. I suspected these sort of fixtures would transport me back to the old days, and they do. Fev was another. Happy days, and they seemed a long way off over the last few seasons.

Bulls leave Dogs Heartbroken wp.me/p5zizl-1Y

Bulls leave Dogs Heartbroken wp.me/p5zizl-1Y

Addy should be nearing a return which will give us a bit more creativity in the forwards. Uaisele, Purtell and Baile have "minor" hamstring problems so not considered long term injuries.

Think Mellor took a bang on the knee at Fev? not sure about Ferguson (maybe he was rested?) and not sure on the status of Davies and Petersen? does anyone know?

Blythe is long term but should be available in the Summer and Walker....hmmm.

I correct myself, it was the Whitehaven game where Mellor was injured, along with Purtell.

Mellor rolled his ankle against Hunslet.

Correct yourself again both were injured against Hunslet.

Regarding Uligna (or however its spelt) I heard fans playing hell about him being barrelled into touch. They were wrong he was given no room to move in by his so-called centre, to me he looks a really strong and useful addition, outside Purtell or Baille he could be very good.