Championship preview: Batley Bulldogs go to Halifax Panthers as ‘massive underdogs’

But it is also a challenge which “excites” new head coach James Ford, who saw his team play competitively for the first time in last Sunday’s 32-10 Challenge Cup win over Hunslet ARLFC at the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium.

Ford, who was there to see Fax lose their opening league match at Doncaster, revealed ahead of the Bulldogs’ curtain-raiser to their Championship campaign:

“They are a good team. I really like what Kyle (Eastmond, Halifax head coach) has done with them. They are a much tougher team under him. They were under a bit of pressure against Doncaster and they hung in there tremendously well for large periods of the game and probably feel they left some points in Doncaster.

“There were a couple of key moments where they probably put some pressure on themselves. If they had got those areas right I think they would have beaten Doncaster.

“We go there knowing they are a very good team and that we are massive underdogs to beat Halifax Panthers away from home.

“But it is a challenge which excites us.”

On last weekend’s cup win over the amateur side Hunslet, Ford said:

“It was a good test and we got a lot out of it. There were some things I was really happy with and a couple of things we didn’t quite get right. When we got the squad together we knew it wasn’t a finished article and it certainly won’t be the finished article after just one game, especially in those conditions.

“But I believe there will be some really exciting moments, as well as some bumps in the road, and we have just got to stick together and keep striving to be better.

“We dealt with adversity really well. We lost three players to injury and made 43 tackles on our own line at the end of the first half. That’s a heroic effort regardless of who you are playing against.

“We showed a lot of character and we can certainly use that going forward.”