1st half awful. 2nd better. Are we really so devoid of ideas on attack (Chizzy) that the best we can muster on 5th tackle in opponents 20 is a Crossley drive?

1st half awful. 2nd better. Are we really so devoid of ideas on attack (Chizzy) that the best we can muster on 5th tackle in opponents 20 is a Crossley drive?

Woeful 1st half and blew a great chance in the 2nd half to steal the game. Not seen many games this year but the standard of officiating doesn’t seem to get any better. Either York have some very fast players or the offside rule was poorly enforced. However York clearly wanted to make a good start and we seemed keen to help them along as well. I think at 24 nil down it was always going to be just too much to do.

Well that first half was utter dross. The second half comeback shouldn't coverup that first half.
Biggest game of season, and as Northern said, we were out enthused and turned out that crap. Basic schoolboy errors and missed tackles.

Kear needs to wield the axe. Grant had a shocker. Allowing the 40-20, knock-on on first tackle which led to a York try. How he didn't score that chance in the second half?

Hallas has great effort but is never hooker in a million years. His distribution was awful. That first one, which started the York momentum, well it was like an 8 year old passed the ball.

Time to make some changes. Too mant players have become comfortable and played that first half like all they had to do was turn up.

Well done York, deserved the win.

Not a fan of one out rugby it made us look laboured.In contrast they played through us with direction and used their pacy backs.Still far too many errors which prove costly and I wonder if we can really get any better when we come up against a resolute defence like York's.Agree we need better.

We start every game like that, it's been a problem for the majority of the season and Kear seems unable to fix it.
Our style of play sees us run over the top of most teams in this league but when we come up against another side that can actually hold their own and play some rugby we get found out. York's first three tries came from dumb errors and the York tryscorers barely had a finger laid on them when they scored.
I said before that Hallas wasn't a hooker and today proved my point. We're missing pace up the middle of the park and around the ruck too. Flanagan is a decent hooker but can't do it all himself and he is not quick enough to punish a quick ptb on the rare occasion that we actually get one.

Our attacking structure just isn't there, we resort to at least 4 solo drives in each set of 6 and it's frustrating to watch. We probably didn't even hit 10 offloads for today's game, Kear should have the big blokes like Crossley and Bustin turning in the tackle and getting the ball free.

This was the first game i've been to since the Skolars game so i can't conpare that to previous performances. As i saw it, we were completely outplayed in the first half hour and York looked much more up for it and we just kept gifting them possession. We managed to halt the tide a little a the end of the first half but didn't really get going until after Keyea went off and Chisolm started causing problems with his towering kicks.
I agree that our offloading was non existent whilst York kept popping the ball out of the tackle. I thought peltier was our best player. He put in a long shift and and made good yards. By the time he scored his try he was playing on one leg so it was a good effort from him. Maybe if we'd been a bit more patient towards the end instead of trying a repeat of the spectacular Ryan try which then backfired then maybe we would have ground them down eventually. But York deserved the win so i can't complain, although they were perhaps fortunate not to lose a player or two to the sin bin with all the persistent lying on in the second half. A stronger ref would surely have gone to his back pocket.
I hope Keyes is okay but it didn't look good. Looks like Lilley could have a crucial role to play now though.

Hopefully taking nothing away from York who were excellent for 30 minutes or a much improved second half, pretty well all the mistakes recently "practiced" came to fruition today i.e. dropped balls, Grant seemingly switching off and as other have mentioned way too much one-out rugby. It strikes me that when there is a half break i.e. Flanagan from dummy half no-one is on his shoulder pushing up, if nothing else to make defenders to think about the possibility of a pass. Need more "body in the oven, brain in the fridge" not the other way around.

Agree with Bull Mania re Hallas not sure why Vila didn't play. I was under the impression Lee Smith is fit, if Johnson is a better choice at Centre then whilst harsh his future is surely elsewhere.

Anyone else think it was odd to kick at goal at 30 = 22? Perhaps Mick will risk the wrath of Kear and ask post match?

Best wished to Joe Keyes, hopefully the stretcher and brace a precaution.

Down by 8 with only a little while to play should always take the 2 imo. Get the ball back from the kickoff and only have to score one try instead of two.

Poor today, going forward should be more than one out rugby and need to be switched on from minute 1.

Johnson was horrific today if I was Kear I’d stay well clear. The amount of tackles he missed.

In terms of skill I thought both teams were even. However York were more enthusiastic from the off and we never showed up in the first 20 mins.

Take nothing away from an outstanding York defence. They were really bodies on the line today and ultimately I thought their defence ended up winning them the game.

As for us, I thought our main problem was line speed. It was non existent. We waited for the York attacker to come to us instead of getting up and meeting them. Happens week in week out except we have become used to dominating the tackle. They gained way too many yards and hence got into good field position.

Can't comment on the Grant 40/20 decision as I was at the bar but how he didn't score that try is beyond me.

Flanagan was awesome yet again as was Minchella and Peltier. Flanagan is class at 9 but we haven't got anyone who can bloody run effectively against a retreating defensive line. We pick it up and always run at the A defender instead of hitting the spaces to capitalize on the quick PTB..

Chisholm for me is awful on the last tackle. Every time he bombs it or cross field to Ryan (which got us a try fair enough) but also cost us the game. Where's the patience? The grubber to get a repeat set. The chip (the one at the end was bloody awful, way to many players around in the area he kicked too). Or even the 'banana' kicks he was doing in 2016. Just awful and predictable. In open play I think he's been bloody great all year.

Overall I thought we did really well to get it back to 30-28. Gutted for Chisholm at the end. But well done York. Great performance and I hope they go up with us. Imperative we do not drop any more points and also win big over the next few weeks. And a massive congratulations to the crowd - 6,471 is a massive achievement for League 1. Hopefully ourselves and York can develop a good healthy rivalry over the next couple of seasons.

Any update on the Keyes injury? Was the ambulance for him?

We have been poor for large parts in most games. Many teams are quicker at passing the ball along the line than us. We are so slow at passing it to the centres. We are predictable. 5 charges and a kick to the wing. That is all we did today. We will get promoted but I will repeat what I said two weeks ago when I started to question our scrum half. Many of this team are not good enough for the championship and yes, we need a scrum half who can run along the line and put people through gaps. All ours does is pass to the player next to him and then kick on the last tackle to the same winger. We need a play maker in there, a good old fashioned one who is there to make others play. Kear and Chalmers knew there was a problem with Chisholm and his poor play making which is why we have signed Lilley.
Expect to see Lilley in quicker than initially thought and he could very well keep the role when he gets settled. It is tough on Chizzy after his terrible injury but needs must and all that. The team as a whole are just not playing fluent rugby other than charges and kicks and that needs to change. It will get us up this year in league 1 but not next season.
Keys was knocked out but is fine. Should miss next week but Lilley will step in.

Disappointing first half - too many school boy errors! The second half was exciting though, was on the edge of my seat most of the game. Hats off to the handful of players who gave it their all - Minni, Crossly, Flanagan Peltz, Wood and Ryan. Don’t think Bustin has been the same since he came back from injury - looks very large and not agile, slow PTBs. Raps to Wood for the effort of chasing down their winger, even though it amounted to nothing. Ryan’s try was amazing too. Maybe the nerves got the better of some for this game. Also, bring back Pickersgill!!

Absolute disaster in the first half.Thought we might have sneeked it at the hooter. Grandson was gutted at the end not used to see us losing but he'll learn.

Great match and great occasion - Bradford should be commended for making the match an actual event, not just an 80 minute game, it puts the efforts of some clubs in higher divisions to shame. Friendly stewards, helpful staff, good beer prices, even a 15ft snake....what more could you want? Well just one thing, I didn't see any programmes for sale, do you not sell them?

Not going to comment on the refereeing or the penalties until I watch the match again.

What surprised me the most about Bradford was the amount of 1 man rugby you played....there wasn't much in the way of line breaks, attacking flair etc. It was a typical 'grind out the result' strategy by Kear which I've seen work on many ocassions, not least the 'Battle of Belle Vue' when Wakefield sent Cas down. It just didn't quite work today but I'm confident both teams will be playing each other in the Championship next season, hopefully by that time York will have moved into the new stadium.

One final point, very surprised at kicking for goal when 2 trys behind with 5 mins to go. Am I going mad here, I mean Chisholm (or Kear) was basically saying, we are happy to draw this match....but a drawn match would've still meant just 2 points and one slipup between the teams. You were in the ascendancy and had you gone for the try I fancy you to score another and win it at the death, which would've pretty much wrapped up the title. Strange decision, just reminded me of rugby union matches (eg we are 4 trys behind so let's kick a penalty goal!).

Many have made the points but:
1 we sat in the changing rooms for the first 25 minutes
2 don't see why McNally in on reputation ahead of Pickersgill
3 Hallas is not and never will be a hooker - poor mistakes
4 Halafihi should walk into the17 next week
5 poor tactics when we met some real opposition
6 real effort to retrieve a situation but we need a more fluid game rather than one out drives
7 sorry for the bench players who were let down by our regular slow start
8 how many penalties before a team warning - poor referee today
9 great spectacle

10 B game

It's quite simple,if you don't have an organised defence that tackles,you will lose.That first half was a complete joke as York just walked through,untouched to score.On that evidence that side would not be a threat in the Championship.Terrible.
Better get Sir Keith back in training imo.

No, we haven't had proper programmes for a couple of years - they print a couple of articles in the local paper the day before the game and give them away at the match to people who want them.

My two penn'orth is we put far too much pressure on ourselves in terms of bulling the game up to be a promotion decider. York didn't, they handled the pressure and we cracked. Once they thought the game was out of reach they got into the game.

We were weak in the centres and I am certain (though this sticks in my throat

) that had Gibson and Smith been on the pitch a 24 - 0 lead would not have happened. No only was our left flank woefully exposed defensively, we didn't actually force their wingers into any work til after 60 mins...added to the fact Johnson could get the ball to Grant who had a clear overlap...

And as for line speed? I think JK needs to drill them again we gifted them 10m every tackle.

Well that was a disappointing performance and not exactly unexpected. We’ve been slow starters for some weeks and we were made to pay yesterday. That first half “performance” was the reason we lost. I was striking how much more dynamic York looked. They took the ball up quicker, made easy yards and looked really slick and organised. In comparison we rarely got our hands on the ball and when we did we were dominated in the collision and this led to a really slow PTB. We seemed unable to deal with York lying in the ruck, which wasn’t effectively policed. Defensively we were soft. There was some weak contact and we allowed too many offloads. This was across the park with both fringes and the middles guilty. Our line speed was non-existent compared to York who raced up to shut us down very effectively.

Second half we dragged ourselves back into the game gradually. Had Grant not knocked on over the line we might even have won. It was a great effort to get back into it but the better side won. They did everything they needed to do to waste time and slow things down – obviously the plan was to blitz us early and then try and withstand the fightback and it worked.

Things that stood out for me:

Hallas is not a hooker. He’s a decent defender and gives 100% but his service from DH is too slow and inaccurate. He also makes too many iffy decisions whether to run or pass. That might be down to a lack of a call from the 1st receiver sometimes but it happens too often. I prefer Sam in at loose forward where he takes the ball up strongly and has a great engine. We’d have been better going with Halafihi and Flanagan yesterday IMO.

Our halfbacks struggled behind a pack that was second best for the first 40mins. When we did get some ball we didn’t look very convincing. Balls were being caught above heads or players were having to juggle them or check their runs to catch them. The recruitment of Lilley and apparently Liam Finn makes me wonder if Kear thinks we need a change. The contrast with how York moved the ball was stark – abeit they were running against a static defence.

Our game plan needs to take a few more risks as we're too predictable. Some more offloads and getting the ball wider stretched York more in the 2nd half.

Our line speed is non existent. From chatting to a mate at Hunslet this was identified by Gary Thornton and picked up on. We generally move forward a couple of paces then stop to effect the tackle, this allows too many cheap yards in my view and a good side will get on the front foot too easily. Are we not fit enough to defend more aggressively? While we’re organised and nobody rushes out we’re weak on the edges and it showed with tries conceded on both sides yesterday.

This weather doesn’t suit some of our bigger forwards. Callum Bustin really was struggling yesterday even before his knee knock. Liam Kirk has also struggled in the heat. Crossley and Peltier less so. But it means our defence around the ruck can be exploited if the big lads are struggling.

Liam Johnson is a backrow not a centre. The sooner Smith is back the better.

Earn the right first,then throw the ball about.Defence,defence and then more defence.Until they do that,they will always be chasing the game against any team who can actually play a bit.

Defensively we were too passive. York got a quick PTB and were able to run at us when we were back pedalling.

When we had the ball the York line speed meant we weren't getting a roll on. They also left a player in the ruck wherever they could which slowed our already slow dummy half down even more.

Flanagan got us going to a degree but I think he overdid the scoots from DH near the line.

Defensively York did a job on us in that first half.

Dumb question from me...

We know Kirk's a good lad but yesterday it looked like boy v men. Why didn't we get on the phone to Toronto and ask them for help beefing the pack up?

Do we still DR or are Kear/Chalmers happier to go it alone?