In all honesty he played better today than Briggs has at stand off. Great tackle at the end as well to stop them getting into position for a DG. Hope he keeps improving please Sykesy lad!!

Defended well today did Sykes. Shame that man Herbert is failing to get us over the line when it matters though. Ample opportunity to win that game today.

Sykes played well in that 2nd half.

Had a decent enough game, shame about the drop goal attempt but he was under pressure I suppose. We might have set it up better though. Another thing to work on.

Yeh thats lack of leadership from the HB. Herbert should have been screaming for them to carry the ball at least one more time and then taking the kick.

It's a lack of leadership but also a lack of composure. We seemed to fluff it by going for it before we'd got int he right position. Not sure who makes the calls out there but it was a duff call to go for the drop then.

this is something thats been worrying the last few weeks. who is making the calls? because we seem to be making a lot of poor ones at the moment at important times. Our plays from ten meters away from the opponents line and on the last tackle are pretty shocking at the moment. long gone are the days when you would expect a bradford team to score everytime from 10 metres out

You can't really make a fair comparison with the great Bulls sides as they had great players in all the key decision making positions and some great forwards who gave all those playmakers time to make the right decision.

Nowadays we've not always got a dominant pack so we may not get quick PTB or a great pass from dummy half. That means the pressure's immediately on the halves, who are nowhere near as good as the likes of the Pauls, Pryce etc. In that situation it's easier to make a balls up.

You're right the ball should of been taken in again but I think it was only the third tackle so if Sykes felt he was under too much pressure he could of passed or taken the tackle. To be honest Sykes seemed to get in position for the kick himself so he was obviously happy to attempt it on that play.

Not that that would of mattered if Paddy had kicked the penalty, then again Cats bombed a couple of chances to pinch the points as well.

Both sides made mistakes and you could argue that Cats fluffed it more times than us.

Sykes, bar his kicking, was ok today, no real complaints TBH. Finger do need pointed at Elliott "Penalty Machine" Whitehead however. How many fouls does this guy give away??? Total liability he was tonight in an otherwise decent show from the lads.

I think..... Thanks to Sky Sports I have no idea if Sykes was a kicking genius in the first half and Whitehead was as clean as Gansons whistle.

If so, sorry lads!

I was thinking about this on the way home. Found it funny that the things Herbert does well are alot of the things people used to give Deacs stick about not doing. He runs the ball well and he defends well. Things the absence of which people used to say Deacs was crap. "he just kicks the ball" etc.

We now complain that our scrum half hasn't got a top class kicking game or a long pass. Mmmm you don't realise what you had till its gone.

I agree we are missing someone to boss the team, move us around or spin the ball wide but to blame that on Herbert or to say he isn't good or doesn't bring something to the team is dead wrong. Those assists speak for themselves. He can't do everything by himself and is missing a half back with a complementary style. Having a scrum half like Herbert is no bad thing so long as you have someone else picking up the rest of it and we don't.

* cough * Briggs?

Quite.