Joined: Mar 03 2005 Posts: 9158 Location: Odsal Stadium
Cannot make this game unfortunately but I can't help feeling some York vibes about this one. We have two games ahead which in theory we should be more than capable of winning but as we know in the Championship if you don't turn up...
I'd take a narrow victory in the warm conditions and with a few key players missing in the pack.
Joined: Mar 03 2005 Posts: 9158 Location: Odsal Stadium
Gaskell crocked again, suspected hamstring injury. Quality player but I'm afraid he misses far too many games nowadays. Hopefully might be good news for McGowan who has been unlucky to lose his spot to Holmes who for me hasn't quite found the form of 2023 yet.
Bully_Boxer wrote:Gaskell crocked again, suspected hamstring injury. Quality player but I'm afraid he misses far too many games nowadays. Hopefully might be good news for McGowan who has been unlucky to lose his spot to Holmes who for me hasn't quite found the form of 2023 yet.
Probably a good thing that Gaskell won't be at the Bulls next year. I thought Holmes had a good game today.
What a strange match, Gaskell off injured early and i feared the worst, expecting to revert to our too frequent lack of direction in attack. But no, an excellent first half proved me wrong. Second half though was half arsed and disappointing. At the start of the match I'd have taken that scoreline, but sadly I feel let down. RE the other comments about Gaskell, im inclined to agree that he's simply too injury prone and not good value. A shame really as when he's on, he makes a huge difference.
EOC mentioned in his preview that we needed to start the game quickly and we certainly hit the ground running this week! Losing Gaskell early on could have potentially derailed our game plan but we took a commanding lead early on and never looked like losing this one. I felt Lilley, Appo, Souter, Fulton and Holmes played well and combined for some nice scores. Their big boys seemed to struggle in the heat and defended very poorly for some of the scores (Davies and Souter's tries in particular).
The second half of the match was relatively uneventful compared to the explosive start. We focused on maintaining possession and controlling the tempo of the game but also squandered a number of changes to put ourselves even further ahead and claw back some of the points difference. While the pace slowed down, our defense remained strong, preventing Doncaster from mounting any significant comeback. The result was never in doubt, and the team managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over with 2 second half tries.
With this victory, we now turn our attention to the upcoming match against Dewsbury who are 1 win out of 12 and who are conceding an average of 34 points a game. Despite their position at the bottom of the table, we cannot afford to be complacent. Our focus will be on maintaining the momentum from this game and go on to 6 wins out of 7 before we head to France to face Toulouse.
Joined: Mar 03 2005 Posts: 9158 Location: Odsal Stadium
Dewsbury will lift their game for Bradford but we really should still have enough to get the points even on an ordinary performance.
Toulouse will then be a massive test for our team, if we want to challenge for top 3 we are going to have to win some tricky games having dropped points against lesser placed sides already.
Thought we were never in danger of losing the game, we seemed to be up for it. Shame about Gaskell going off so early in the game. I thought the young ref had a game better than some of the more experienced refs and he could be one for the future.
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