Diskin praises Bulldogs' second half display as Kelly rues errors

Diskin was unhappy with his side’s efforts in the first half but pleased with the way they rectified the situation, especially in the final quarter when Batley ran in five converted tries in a 17 minute spell.

Speaking after Sunday’s Championship win, Diskin said: “I thought for 55 minutes we were terrible. We kept giving possession away.

“When we got Dewsbury down in their end, we kept giving away penalties or making stupid mistakes and Dewsbury took advantage and are starting to play some nice stuff now.

“After 55 minutes something clicked and we got really clinical on how we went about things.

“A lot of the pressure we had built came to fruition and we managed to put some points on late on.

“In the first half we had good field position but we gifted them out of it with penalties. “The second half we were a little bit smarter and knew if we kept the penalty count down and kept field position, in the heat, we would get the fruits of it near the end and that is what happened.

“Dewsbury played some nice rugby and if they had been a little bit more clinical with their stuff, because they had one or two drops, it could have been a different game as they would have been a few points further up.

“The whole team got a telling off at half-time, the halves in particular, as I didn’t think we were direct enough but they deserve the raps for their second half performance.

“Dane Manning works his blood to water and is one of the first names on the team sheet every week because you know what you are going to get from him.”

Rams counterpart Neil Kelly was left to rue errors from his side as they allowed a lead to slip away and they remain two points above the Championship relegation zone.

Kelly said: “When you see a performance like that it is tough to take. I’m not bothered if its against Batley or whoever. It is just another game and if you do some things right you will win the game but if you do things wrong you will lose the game and we did a lot wrong.

“It was a warm day and when you complete a few sets you seem to have momentum but when you don’t complete your sets and then you fall foul of the referee, then you are defending more than you need to and the opposition see you look tired. It’s an obvious downward spiral but it could have been an upward spiral if we’d completed our sets and the opposition would have looked tired.

“What we have learned is that we are not as good as we think we are, although we are a good side when we do things right.”