Barrow certainly knew how to play the ref and we never wised up to.

He gave a penalty for a high shot when he had his back to the tackle. Their No5 was jumping up and down like he'd stood on a lego brick barefooted and the whistle went straight to his mouth. It was that ridiculous it was actually funny.

We turned up on 60mins, went through them, believed the hype and let them come straight back. Most infuriating game I've ever seen thanks to our stupidity and the ref's playing up to the camera Ganson-style

Poor game management , silly penalties and lack of conviction.
I thought Scurr was outstanding coming off the bench , Lawrence carried strongly in the final quarter but the rest of the squad were poor.

Was there an issue with Matongo? He did one stint in the first half and then never returned. Did he pick up an injury?

On the biting incident, if he has bitten him he shouldn't play for us again. Horrible act.

But watching it on Viaplay just left me bemused. Barrows player arms around the mouth but there isn't a biting/clamping and then disappear behind the bodies. Barrow player then gets up waving his arm around for a good 2-3 seconds accusing of being bitten. Ref then calls time off (not give a penalty) looks at the arm then says he's seen it and sends off Taufua. Just bemusing how the camera angle showing the incident clearly didn't show anything, yet the ref saw the incident through all those bodies and yet didn't blow for a penalty and called time off after the player made a complaint. I think hes seen a mark on an arm and decided that's sufficient evidence. Again if he has bitten him, he shouldn't play again.

Just dumb dumb rugby. I have been a supporter of Patten in the past but I think he's getting to be a liability. I would let him go and offer Lawford his wage to try and keep him to play alongside Gaskell.

We've also got to move heaven and earth to keep Scurr.

On a side note why only one turnstile open in the car park and queues going back to Stadium Road. This just p****s supporters off. Come on Bulls it's not difficult and very un-professional.

On a positive note, I thought Myers looked the part!

Positives - Lilley off the bench (should've started), Scurr, Lawrence and Myers.

Negatives - The attitude. As mentioned above. Far too many of these players think they have a pre ordained right to win. We came out and went through the motions for the first half. No line speed, no marker defence, in attack it was aimless kicking and poor decision making and no visible gameplan at all. The discipline was non-existent. It was like watching a load of petulant teenagers getting "old manned" by a more experienced opposition, yet many of our players are old enough to know better. Getting on the wrong side of the ref means all the 50-50 calls will go against you.

Time to bin Patton off. He's far too inconsistent and when he doesn't fancy it like last night he's a liability. I feel similarly about Flanagan snr. He supposedly brings enthusiasm but IMO this should amount to more than clapping your hands and shouting loudly to team mates. When Lilley came on for him the line speed and marker defence improved 1000%.

I'm away on Holiday and by the sounds of it our performance was dire, just glad that I missed it.

Am I right in thinking that the ref didn't stop the clock on at least 2 occassions when Shaw was taking conversions? I'm not saying it would have made a difference but it's just not right. Aren't kickers allowed 1 minute before the clock is stopped?

Shaw took ages but the ref did stop the clock from what I saw.

Yes but well after aminute had expired.

Hmm. As has been said, that assumption that we would win came back again, like at York, like at Barrow & Widnes. And we lost. It’s got to be the playmakers that determine that with their pass/kick/run choices. And that’s on Patton, lesser extent Flanagan as age has caught him this season.
But that was retrievable at half time as we had played the worst half of the season but our goal line defence was ok, so we were only 8-0 down.
And there was a short period where we got quick ptb, due to running hard and direct and Barrow couldn’t cope. But then we went away from it and the chance was gone.
So, Patton has to go - definitely at the end of the season. Whether we drop him now is a risk, but Lilley/Gaskell or Jowitt/Gaskell or Lawford/Gaskell have to be considered.
Time has caught Flanagan up. No shame in that and we have other hooking options
That was a bad refereeing performance. Rodgers disallowed try looked perfectly fine from the direct overhead view from the Coral stand.
The bite. There wasn’t any video evidence. There were 3 options. An experienced ex- NRL player deliberately bit the forearm of another player. It was an accidental coming together of a forearm and jaw in contact. Or it wasn’t accidental and the Barrow player used his forearm to forcibly drive the opponent’s head into the ground.
9 times out of 10, a referee would put that on report or go to the video ref as generally its 1 players word vs another. But there was a mark, so he made a choice.
Batley will know they just have to do the basics, wind up Patton and suck up to the ref to win.

So for an 80 minute game, I think we watched Shaw looking at a ball on a tee for about 8 minutes.

How many penalties did Patton give away? Chat on Facebook said 5 but I'm not sure about that. If correct and he gets picked next week then I give up!

It's not the first time that discipline has been bad. We are brainless sometimes and so easy to wind up.

They had 3 kicks at goal off the back of him. The ref was a joke and that penalty at the end for a late hit on the kicker - I've seen it back on viaplay's youtube channel - was an absolutely garbage call, but we were our own worst enemy last night.

What's people's opinion on the bite? I think it's rubbish and we should be doing it to other teams from now on. Running up to the ref claiming someones been bitten or had their knackers grabbed. Again it's on the highlights on vaiplay youtube and there's no way the ref could possibly see it if it happened.