Gutted I'm missing it, will be there Monday though

Thank goodness for full-time fitness! My lot scored 36 in the last 22 minutes at Hunslet!

Whilst we are breathing several sighs of relief can we all just spare a few moments to think of jesus christ who died today.

Am I the only one who was shocked at the lack of a minutes silence?

I can only guess what Lowes said at half time. He sent them out onto the field a good five minutes early for the second half. Must have been one hell of a team talk! Please, please can we drop Siejka now? It's beyond a joke. He didn't create anything and also jumped out of the line and missed tackles. He seems to be the one player who gets picked regardless of form. Everyone else can be dropped or subbed for a mistake but he seems to get away with it. I thought Lauaki was more direct today and made a difference when he came on. Against Workington he was passing the ball instead of driving it in but he was better today.

The classic game of two halves. First half, we didn't look that bothered, coughed up loads of cheap yards, and seemed to think if we just ponderously passed it along the line, all would be well. Halifax OTOH were well fired up, had a plan, and executed it very well. When we weren't giving them free yards, they were taking them with some superb kicking, in fact it got better as the half went on and as a result we spent much of it in our right hand corner, trying to push out through the mud. Almost got kicked to death.

How much their efforts took out of Fax, how much a factor the wind was, and what Lowes said, I don't know, but we came out with a totally differnt attitude, as if every player had said "Look, let's stop sing about", and they really took it to Fax. To their credit, despite being overwhelmed at times, and unable to cope with some of the class plays we started to put on, they regrouped and found a way to stem the tide, and so it was that at three-quarter time they had sill kept the game very much alive, and the last few minutes put a false slant on the contest. We looked by a long way the better team for most of the second half, but took some crazy options, the most mad of which was Harry Secombe after Gaskell had kicked on following a lovely break, Secombe HAD to just take a tackle, ptb and we walk in, instead he went for glory, somehow convincing himself he has pace, and tamely kicked the ball back to them. His decision making is very poor, and that was a classic example.

So all in all, the Bulls ended up doing enough to win, but it was never comfortable, and indeed if Shaw hadn't had an unbelievable kicking day, slotting goal after goal from the touchlines, we really would have been sweating.

A fine crowd, a great atmosphere,a nd credit to the Fax faithful who made a lot of noise and added to an entertaining old-style night under the floodlights.

Sounded like a great second half performance but can not afford to start as slowly again. Funny that I watched the 1997 game last night on the excellent Bulls TV and today ends up being another game of "two halves" - thankfully the Bulls won them both and Jimmy instrumental in both!!

Excellent crowd - nearly 4 times any other Championship crowd, twice the crowd than at Wakefield, better than Huddersfield and also not too far off the Widnes/Wire derby crowd. I would think that 8,000 to 10,000 is a definite possibility for the Leigh game, especially if both teams continue winning.

To put it bluntly, if we play like we did in that first 40 against our opposition in the super 8's, then there's no way we'll be getting promoted. It was a complete shambles.
No idea what happened to Fax in the second half - all of their urgency and aggressiveness from the first half completely vanished, and they wouldn't have scored a point if it hadn't been for Gaskell's loose pass.
It's a concern that pretty much every attacking play we put on is going through Lee Gaskell. He's even putting in all of the attacking kicks, it feels like we really are playing with only one half at times. I don't want to criticise Siejka too much because he wasn't the reason why we struggled so much in the first half, but either Jimmy has told him to just catch the ball and pass it on to the bloke next to him, or he's choosing himself to do absolutely feck all with ball in hand. Just take the line on once in a while Harry!

We're Bradford fans. We're silent for the whole 80 minutes at home, what more do you want?

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I thought he was playing for Fax ! seem to remember hearing him being mentioned numerous times in the 1st half last night.

I enjoyed that. A proper full on game of rugby.
Bradford down and out against a vibrant Halifax side at half time, and then roaring back to win in the second half.

That reminds of of another game, some time ago....

I can understand why Lowes is giving Siejka every chance to settle in. If he ends up being discarded it outs helluva lot of pressure on Gaskell. Stop Gaskell stop Bradford will become the opposition mantra. I think he will persevere with him for a few more games before it becomes decision time.

I actually thought we looked to be up for the game at the start, we tackled very aggressively in the opening 10 mins. But then we had that long period of pressure in their 20m where we lacked creativity, seemed to think that if we just battered away they would fold. When they held out we completely lost our way.

It certainly brought back memories of 1997

And an attendance better than Huddersfield v Salford in Super League!

I didnt even think Gaskell was playing in the first half, worst ive seen him play in that first half since the middle of last season - dont know if thats due to them closing him down

But it was like he took a long hard look in the mirror at HT and had a word with himself as he controlled the game in the 2nd half.

Secondly - how did Adam O'Brien not get MOM last night !!!

Good job most of these other teams are part time and we can count on them running out of fuel. On the strength of that performance I can't see where we get the extra needed to beat full time SL teams. If more teams go full time then I could cope with staying in the Championship and it really needs more to go full time. Last night demonstrated that perfectly. I think that Siejka needs more time. Jimmy likes him taking the line on but he needs better decision making as to what next. Only game time will give him that and enough confidence in the strengths of other players. I think he will look better on dryer grounds....well I hope so.

Still haven't worked out what happened last night.

Clearly Fax came fired up for a cup final, their try celebrations were unbelievable for a league game, derby or not. They put everything into that first half and out muscled us for a fact, but their decision to save no energy at all for the second half [surely they didn't think the game finished at half time?] was rank bad tactics. Still don't know if we were underpowered in that first 40 or just managed our energy better. We were definitely out enthused.

We need these games against teams with a point to prove though, to keep us honest and give some intensity to these qualification league games. We gain nothing from running in points for fun and hopefully we can reap the benefit against the SL teams in the middle 8s.