It was a violent circle. We (as all teams do) tried to slow down their march down the hill and we were penalised (Beswick with two stupid, needless ones for example) we took less time over tackles and were still penalised (Wrench held Lindsay in the tackle for less than 2 seconds with Lindsay doing nothing to try and get up) That's why Batley looked ultra quick,. because we weren't winning the ruck and able to slow their play down, just as they were doing to us.

We did give away some stupid penalties, Wrench driving his elbow into a face right in front of the touch judge, Worrincy getting up with 2 men on him, Beswick a couple of times too. Laughton simply killed the game. Batley had no right to get that close to us but we still took our foot off the gas and thought the game was won.

Laughton didn't actually award Branighan's 2nd try, he said "Yeah, i'm happy" and pointed before Gareth Moore ran over screaming to look at the touch judge. Made to look foolish there PC Laughton.

I'm just sick and tired of having spectacles of RL ruined by that meglomaniac. He NEVER lets the game flow, the slightest infringement and he blows up, no matter how trivial. If Senior thinks Silverwood is arrogant and wants attention all time, someone please tell him about Laughton.

You tell em

To be honest about last night I thought Laughton absolutely crucified Batley in the first half, and in the 2nd he crucified Halifax. Sadly when we got our glut of penalties the game was over.

The main decisions I question for you ref's on the this forum are.

1. Greenwoods' hand touched the ball in the act of making the tackle on the 5 down Fax's left hand side in the fist half resulting in another 6, but he never made an attempt to stop the pass he never took his eyes from the centre he was tackling yet it was given as a scrum to you for a knock on.

2. Worrincy went straight through Campbell whilst in mid air with no attempt at challenging for the ball, I'm not saying it is right but at one time that was a straight red card, seems we have given up with that one.

3. Campbell's try looked like a knock on to me too. It was a poor decision how they get video ref decisions wrong is beyond me, but yet we see it in almost every game no excuse for that at all IMO.

4. Campbell had the ball stripped in the first half by Black on the first tackle after loads of Fax pressure which you scored off.

5. Worst of all it took him almost an hour before binning someone for interference at the PTB, Lythes (Batley hooker) should gone in the first half, but both sides were at it from the kick off, if he'd binned someone in the first half it would have stopped it earlier and we might have seen the game we all wanted with less than 10 penalties in the whole game, but instead we got a whistle solo.

I'm not whining about the result, IMO Fax deserved the win, no question about that, you defended your line better than Batley and had more idea in attack, and you could find touch from penalties

. I just wished we'd had a ref that would have stamped on the interference and holding down, that would have allowed a more free flowing and open game to see what both teams were capable of. Instead neither team could get in to any sort of rhythm because of Laughton's one man whistle show.

You are deluded! Ref was clearly being paid something by the batley lot. Im surprised the RFL are blind to this.

You could see the anguish on Laughtons face as he had to call full time before somehow finding a way to gift batley the 3 points

How do you figure that? The game had already gone by the time he decided to even things up on the bad decision front. Watch it again without you blue and white glasses on. He killed us in the first half with poor decisions, and he killed you in 2nd. If we'd paid him off do you not think we'd have paid him in the first half? We didn't deserve a win, the best team won, but it would have been nice to see a free flowing game.

we saw a free flowing game in the 1st half. in the second half it was all dirt tactics by the batley players, somehow being allowed by the incompetent ref, which allowed you to balance the score out a bit, but sadly for ronnie was not enough

Exactly the same thing happend when Paterson tackled the centre in the 1st half, at last something Ronnie was consistent about!!!

Went to the game, watched the replay and read all the comments. If anyone thinks that Worrincy should have been sent off etc then they really have no idea. The lad stood his ground and the Batley player went straight over the top of him. Im just pleased he wasnt seriously hurt but it was a pure accident.

There's a thread been started on the RLFans Main section about Rob being carded for his 'late tackle'. Fax player or not, I agree with you. The Batley player landed badly and thank god he didn't get hurt but it wasn't a malicious tackle.

No not on placement mate did that with our near SL neighbours.

Yes it was very strange. Also enlightening seeing it from the other side too.

Decent game last night and pretty exciting in parts really, slightly spoiled by a pedantic, often incompetent and spotlight-hogging official who was bad for both teams.
Obviously Halifax are going to be up there again this season. With the playing talent you have at your disposal, Calland would need to be the worlds worst coach not to achieve something with the squad you have.
FWIW, we're not really on the same planet as Fax in terms of the disparity between the playing budgets of our two clubs, so I'm more than happy to come away with a bonus point from last night.
Well done and thanks for bringing a good following, it will certainly have boosted our coffers nicely.

Plenty of worlds worst coaches for Leeds Rhinos then - prior to their recent successes.

Im sure Matt is acutely aware of the expectations and to be fair we are doing alright thus far!

What grounds are you assessing our assessing our playing budget as don't forget we lost a big sponsor in December with the demise of Link Telecom and a new 2 year deal

Don't be silly, Halifax's wage bill must be at least more than double that of Batley. I'd go as far to say that the trio of Penkywicz, Gene and Aizue will be on more money put together than the whole of Batley's squad over the course of a season.

Halifax get 2,000+ attendances (with some 3,500+ in there aswell) , Batley get about 800. We have more sponsors than you can throw a stick at, some of which will be 6 figure sums i would have thought. We'll also get prize money and what-not from certain games aswell. I'd guess these are mainly what s/he's basing our budget on compared to Batleys

How are Batley possibly have near us in terms of playing budget?

Directors loans and our contracts being incentive based rather than a pro annum lump sum? I'm not saying either is case, just throwing it out there.

My word dont some folk talk bollox and im from Batley

Aye but our incentives are probably higher than Batleys though. Im not suggesting we're rich, or even how our club is run, but it's a fair assumption that with the above fact and the players in our squad, our budget is clearly higher than Batleys would you not say?

As a neutral I'd say that's a very fair assessment. I thought Wrench should have been binned sooner though. I was looking forward to this game but Ronnie chose to steal the spotlight - again!

Have u got a proper job with batley then? if so well done

Rob was just stupid and clumsy rather than anything dirty etc-but obviously some people like to create something out of nothing. Laughton the Clown pinged batley for everything first half-then seemed to stop doing it in the second then vice versa for fax! Thanks for ruining the game laughton-try and be a bit consistant!

branighan did well. Black did OK but is still not matchfit for me. Penky is a Jekyl and Hyde charactor who does some really excellent things and set up a couple of ties near to the line-then just has brainstorms like shoving people over which could easily see him in the bin. The players did not have a clue in defence due to one mr Laughton. Normally you can guess how long a ref will let you hold a man down-not with laughton! Must be really frustrating as a player. I think the offsides were pedantic. If Laughton bothered talking to players to step back etc then that would be better than blowing up all the time.

We won and we did not play that well. We let batley back in to the game which is disappointing but least we won. Hopefully with the better weather we can get to see us in a more flowing team

"it wasn't a malicious tackle" because it wasn't even a bluddy tackle! Rob just stood there and Campbell decided to leap for the ball over Rob's head .... land on Rob ... then fall awkwardly to the ground. Then we had all those brain dead morons in the corner squealling like lunatics to get Rob sent off! It shouldn't have even been a penalty, just "play on".

It was a Penalty for the reason that Worincy didnt challenge for the ball and thats what the ref said to him when he was talking to him. It was a pure accident the Batley player landing on his head but it really came about because it didnt look like Worrincy fancied it, he has a sneaky look and sees the full back running full pelt and basically pulled out.