They closed us down brilliantly. Tbf their attack let them down too. Anyway, it's better to play badly and win, then to play well and lose. Right?

not a great second half, i thought Chizzy was poor to-day whilst he has a few moments of great play on the whole he looks disinterested!

He injured his quad,came back and did it again. Should be fit to return within the next week or two.

Well, we won, but what an awful game, couldn't wait for it to end. Newcastle tackled well and slowed the ptb down and that's about all. I never thought we were in any danger of losing that match. The worrying thing for me was how totally clueless we were close to the line. Chizzy was poor as someone has already said. Apart from one searing break he just passed the ball on, sometimes stood still.

A lot to think about for the York game. We will need to be 100% better than that showing.

Another below par performance where we've managed to come away with the points. Newcastle were equally as bad in places and a better team would have potentially put us away. Big improvements needed if we are hopeful of turning over York.

What is this bashing of Dane Chisholm all about? I think some of you lot expect him just to tip-toe through the defensive line every time he touches the ball and score hat tricks every week!
We scored three tries last night. Dane scored one of them and set up one of the others with a pin point kick (yet again).

Newcastle are no mugs, they are a well drilled side. They went to York last weekend and lost 24-6. One missed conversion away from being the exact same score as we put on them last night. I highly doubt the York supporters were all moaning after their win about how crap their side played because they didn't put 50 points on a side for once.

Defences were on top all night, in truth and both were well drilled. I don't think the game was helped by the referee, who whilst he pulled defenders well back immediately after the tackle didn't seem remotely bothered about them immediately moving forward again well before the ball was played, causing the acting half to make hurried passes or die with the ball.

wins a win but wasn't pretty. Ref seemed to pretty regularly pull us back 12-13 for Newcastle PTB's and only pull them back 6-7 for ours which combined with letting players move forwards before PTB had actually happened meant we were having to rush passes.
Not sure how Grant is staying in team. Seems to have perfected the knack of running sideways with ball and making little forward gain. Also noticed him positioning himself behind PTB a lot so he couldn't receive the pass and have to do any work.

Or "the Leon" as it used to be known.

I stood there last night wondering how many of these will still be with us next season if Kear wants us to be a top half championship club - not mentioning top four. We were poor and are struggling far too many times. Yes they see us as a scalp and up their game but they are division 1. This team playing exactly like this will struggle next year but I do have great faith in Kear and Chalmers so I expect us to step up next year but that may be a problem for a number of the current lads who may need to be released to bring in a better quality of player.
I don't think anyone is bashing Dane. A small group of us last night did talk about how he would go in a higher division as he isn't "ripping it up" in this division - although we must all remember the terrible injury he is still getting over. I hope he is fully over it both physically and mentally by next February. I think he will be. If not, then maybe a bid for Lilley or someone in a more traditional play maker scrum half style to give more options may be seen.

Unbelieveable. Someone actually suggesting - I assume seriously - that we think about replacing Chisholm with Jordan Lilley. You are mad.

It's a shame that player stats aren't really available in these lower leagues because I think Dane is certainly up there for tries, assists, clean breaks and even his kicking accuracy.

Like I said before, some people are just expecting too much and I think they need to be more realistic in their expectations.

I'm not making an argument either way (yet), but out of interest. Do you think that's mad because Chisholm is clearly better than Lilley, or because it's unrealistic for Bradford to sign Lilley? Not saying which my opinion is, just wondering the source of your amazement.

You can't really look at halves individually, unless one is 'letting the side down' and, personally I don't think this anything like the case, and even then the change has to be like for like.

We have two halves, one is the organiser who leads the side around the field and the other one is the 'off the cuff' bloke, who comes up with great plays when nothing seems to be on, whilst often not appearing to be doing much. You can't swap the 'off the cuff' bloke for another organiser, it would lead to chaos.

I've made my feelings known about Lilley on these boards before. I can't knock his enthusiasm but I just don't think he has the pace or agility to threaten sides. When he was on loan here he tried and tried to make clean breaks himself but came up empty handed every time. He will never pose a threat to a defense like Chisholm does. Keyes and Lilley are a similar age and I would take Keyes every day of the week.
I actually think we have a great halfback pairing right now. Keyes is more of an organiser but isn't afraid to take the line on himself and has scored a decent amount of individual tries this season. Chisholm is the off the cuff half and yes, a lot of his stuff looks bad if it doesn't come off but I would never want Kear to coach that out of him.