Not the best day but far from a disaster when you consider Batley have a damn good record over Leigh over the years.
I felt the officials was a little inconsistent in decision making today, this isn’t to say they was all for or against Leigh or Batley but some inconstant decisions delivered for the same offences, this part of the sport (officials)needs the most money spending on it as these guys need as much help as possible, thankless task as everyone can do it better from the stands.
In terms of our team, Chase wouldn’t have been near the FB position for me as its a waste of his talents and any high ball was dropped v Wigan, to put him in v Batley in February was not the best move, fine coming out with the ball and no problems with line tackling but high ball catching is a specialist thing and its not his strength (nor should it be considering where his talents are).
We looked like a team that had hardly played pre season games (a poor decision to have just 2 in front of fans – behind closed doors doesn’t create the same pressure as if people are watching you)so we was behind the ball before we started, it showed with some rusty performances and a few moves not followed up.
Kicking game was terrible and Batley showed how to deliver a good kicking game using the conditions, completion didn’t seem high in parts of the game and we did far too many blind alley moves (again though more games will see this iron out as players get used to the usual positions of lots of new teammates.
Missed Beswicks guile and Hocks tackling in particular today with McNally sorely missed.
Batley I though played exceptionally well and deserve great credit for delivering such a good team performance.
I suspect Dereks comments was responsible for the extra 10% effort in the Batley team such was the OTT celebrations by them at the end (Btw was it a penalty right in front of the sticks, couldn’t see from where I was what happened) and he will have no doubt learnt a lesson from that and start to be more cautious about what he says as why give the opposition players and coaches more motivation?
Having said that I have also realised that a lot of people in Yorkshire are obsessed with Derek and believe literally every single word they hear and take it all very seriously, of course they also believe everything they read as truth.
With that in mind I have tonight dispatched various letters to addresses in West Yorkshire stating I am stuck in Spain and have no money and requesting these kind Yorkshire folk give me there bank details so I can take out £200.00 for my airfare home and of course on my return I’ll refund them double the cost.
I expect to be a millionaire by lunchtime
Poor result, think a draw would have been about right but still despite the defeat great to see some live RL again
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