Will we see the Bulls that played at Batley or the ones that played Barrow?

With Segeyaro out it'll be interesting to see if Patton gets a reprieve or whether Jowitt comes in. I'd go for the latter and put him at fullback with Holmes and Gaskell in the halves with Lilley at hooker and Flanagan on the bench. I know that causes more disruption but I likes the enthusiasm shown last week and we rarely look like that with Patton on the field.

Expect DFJ or Wynne on the wing for Taufua.

Hope we put a score on them. Points difference could be crucial with how tight the table is.

If we perform like we did against the Bulldogs we should walk this game and score some big points. Newcastle are a tricky side to predict. They ran us close in the first fixture earlier in the year and can cause some problems if we take our eye of the ball. Their previous results have been a bit hit and miss. They have narrowly beaten some of the teams around the bottom end of the table but have also been hammered by playoff pushing teams such as Widnes, Halifax, London & Sheffield. Those later results would suggest that if we fancy it, we could accumulate a big score and win comfortably.

After the slip up at against Barrow I'm hoping Greenwood & Nobby have made sure that the squad are not underestimating any other team for the remainder of the season. We have to eradicate this attitude of entitlement that we can just turn up and teams will roll over and let us win.

As for squad selection:
- Patton sits out again
- Holmes/Gaskell partnership in the halves
- Jowitt to full back
- Meyers to keep his place in the centres
- Would like to see Lilley do the full 80 at 9 which would free up another bench spot for Wynne (if fit).

Has anyone said anything publicly about Patton not playing? Is it just not being addressed at all?

Greenwood explained why he'd been left out either before or after the Batley game. Can't remember the exact words. Reading between the lines it was to do with getting some more enthusiasm out on the pitch. Not injury related.

this is going to be too close to call for a top 3 spot ... all the top 4/5 play each other during the final 6 games ... sheff away, fev at home will be difficult plus a trip to london ... the wire and down to expected lol

You all know Bongser's soft-spot for Bradford: Wouldn't you have salivated over this run-in in recent seasons? Times are improving - slowly, admittedly.

we've had chances but blown them :/

grats on the win at the weekend Mr B

Hopefully moving in the right direction. Not quite at the pace of Leigh but slowly forwards is better than nothing.

Had the pleasure of being seated in the Leigh end at Wembley and amazing to see the positivity and transformation taking place... reminded me a lot of the early days of BullMania!!! Leopard print everywhere and grown men crying at full time will live long in the memory

Cheers, fellahs. Bongser's tears only came the next day. 52 years ago, Ol' Pa B went down to the old Empire Stadium with Uncle B leaving all three of their young sons in Leigh. Following day, Bongser was on his dad's shoulders for the homecoming parade. Ol' Pa B is no longer with us.

This time the open top bus came through Atherton (Bent in local dialect) and Bongser stood there. As said bus rounded the corner onto Market Street, a bloke hoisted his young son onto his shoulders and the dam broke.

No shame as far as this party is concerned.

We'll go into the top 4 with a victory now. Surely even we can't love this up?

Seriously though I'm not just wanting a win, I'm wanting to see our points difference improved as it could be crucial. Time to be ruthless as we come into the business end.

i will be listening tonight via Micks commentary ... if we dont win, computer and wall will meet

agreed ... still so many outcomes to come these next few weeks

No Patton again.

Typical Jekyll and Hyde performance from the Bulls. Judging by the Batley game, we should have absolutely waked this. Newcastle looked shattered after 30 minutes.
But let's make life difficult - drop balls, forward passes, stupid penalties, overplays. Talk about underestimating the opposition.

Scratchy performance. Got the win and now up to third. But improvement needed.

I heard today Patton is not coming to games when not selected
Brad England wasn't picked today but was running water.

Patton was stood in front of me today.

Fair enough
Guess person who told me was incorrect

Post match, Greenwood described it as a scruffy win, but 2 points takes us to 3rd and we can now focus on Swinton, who are supposedly targeting us as a home win for them.
Brad England is fit & available. I think next week he’ll be back in the 17, Arundel back to Centre in place of Myers.
Baldwinson and Segeyaro both on crutches.

Slightly concerning performance today. Another example of the squad just turning up and going through the motions and expecting to win. The only reason we managed to limp over the finish line is because Newcastle were so poor are now effectively relegated.

Massive improvements needed next week against Swinton. We've now got a decent league position as we come to the business end of the season. Lets know blow it next week.

I don't think it was an attitude of we turned up half d. It was just a flat game, flat atmosphere. Felt like your typical end of season game knowing we would win. We were just clunky.

Doro looks a good pick up.

Definite improvement needed as Swinton will definitely be out to whack us. No end of season feeling next week.

Yeah it was distinctly lacking in atmosphere yesterday. I'd be surprised if the crowd was any more than 1.5k.

Thought we didn't quite click in attack as well this week. Quite a few dropped or misdirected passes so we were out of possession for some long periods. Defensively we did pretty well but a better side would've made the game much closer.

Thought Fenton Rogers looked good in both his spells. Flanagan snr did well too to score the first and last tries and showed me that maybe he does still have another season in him, Thought Appo went well when he came on. The run and offload for Lilley's try was special. Doro has a good offload doesn't he? The try that was ruled out to Jowitt under the posts was a belter, shame he knocked on.

Depends where Bullseye was... never actually said he was at the game



Could have been in the queue at his local B&Q for all we know

Yeah Patton's other half and little girl were watching the game from the popular side to the right of the dugouts. He came over and joined them for a bit in the second half. He looked perfectly happy to be there so I don't think he's in a sulk or anything.