Batley Bulldogs visit Dewsbury Rams for the second time in 10 days tomorrow in the cup looking to overturn a Championship defeat and regain form.
Tomorrow’s Ladbrokes Challenge Cup fifth round tie is an opportunity to put things right and possibly secure a money spinning draw against Super League opposition. But Batley coach Matt Diskin admitted Batley need a big improvement in performance and he said: “We are really blunt with the ball. “As a group they are not carrying out what we are asking at the moment.
“The group has got to take responsibility, as do I. “Obviously the messages and plans we are putting together are not being carried out and we have to figure out why.” Diskin insisted the team are not at “panic stations”, but he added: “There’s plenty of effort there as individuals, but that’s the problem – it’s all individual effort.
“We’ve got to bring it together as a group otherwise it will be a long season.” Rams’ previous derby win came in the first game of Neil Kelly’s second spell as coach, though his side lost to Sheffield Eagles three days later. “It was nice to win the Good Friday game, but it’s going to have no bearing on this one,” Kelly warned. “We will have different personnel and I would think they will have too. “I am still in the process of looking at different players and if there’s a fixture when I can afford to look at some players it’s this one.
“I am going to be forced to experiment a bit because we’ve got some injuries from Easter and we won’t have any players on dual-registration. “They have problems of their own, they won’t be happy losing two on the trot over Easter, but it’s another game when we’re not really looking at the opposition – we are just concentrating on ourselves.” Rams are locked in a battle against relegation and Kelly admitted: “We want to go as far as we can in this competition. “It would be nice to have a Cup run, but the league is our priority.”
Dewsbury squad: A Brown, Douglas, Fairhurst, Igbinedon, Guzdek, Morton, Walshaw, Potts, Sykes, Kain, Tonks, Stringer, L.Adamson, ward, Speakman, Teanby, Glover, Sheriffe
Batley squad: Hitchcox, Scott, Smeaton, Hallett, Southernwood, Brambani, Gledhill, Leak, Rovw, Day, Farrell, Davey, Lillycrop, Chandlet, Bratherton, Brown, Manning, Hill, Hayward