Mark Moxon delighted with guard of honour and ovation for Dale Morton as Batley Bulldogs beat youthful Wakefield

Morton scored one of Batley’s eight tries in a convincing 44-16 victory, although Moxon believes his side needs to be better when they welcome Featherstone Rovers in the 1895 Cup this Sunday.

“The scoreboard didn’t look too bad at the end but we were really disappointed in how scrappy it got at times,” Moxon admitted. “Wakefield sent a young team up but we just lost patience at times and overplayed an awful lot and made too many errors.

“I was disappointed with the way we didn’t build a game and build more of a platform for us to execute our good ball. We handed the ball over way too easy.

“Although it was a decent scoreline, and we scored some nice tries, we do know that we will have to be a lot better to beat Featherstone this week.”

The day was a special one for Morton as he was given a guard of honour before kick off and capped it off with a typical try.

Moxon said: “It was a belting try as well. It was great skill from Bucky (Kieran Buchanan) out of the back door and Dale finished it well like he has done all his career.

“It was really nice for him to get a try in his testimonial, although it was probably inevitable he was going to get at least one! His try scoring records are outstanding.

“It was a decent turn out for him and he got a nice guard of honour and an ovation when he came out with his kids. I’m sure that was a proud moment for him. It was fully deserved.”

Summing up the pre-season campaign, which has seen the Bulldogs go undefeated, Moxon said:

“It’s been good. We always have issues with venues in pre-season but I am happy with the way we have juggled that.

“I am really pleased with the amount of minutes I have been able to give everybody. Everything has gone according to plan. The medical staff have done a great job of getting everybody fit for the start of the season. That was the brief.

“Overall, it has been a good pre-season.”