Halifax Panthers produce stunning late finish to spoil John Kear’s milestone outing at Batley Bulldogs

The milestone fixture seemed to be going in Batley’s favour at half-time with a Lucas Walshaw try and three Josh Woods goals giving the Bulldogs a 10-6 lead.

But Fax, who ended a seven-game winless run against Toulouse at Odsal last Saturday, sprung into life in the final 15 minutes after falling further behind at the start of the second half - 16-6 - through Robbie Butterworth’s converted try.

James Saltonstall scored on his 250th appearance for his hometown club and Charlie Graham added to a first half effort before Adam Tangata completed the stunning recovery for an 18-16 victory.

It was three tries in a blistering ten-minute spell to leave Fax delirious and the Bulldogs shell-shocked.

Kear had called “consistency” from his players in the build-up to this West Yorkshire derby after tasting defeat for the first time since returning to Mount Pleasant as head coach at Barrow Raiders last weekend.

He made a couple of changes to that side with Adam Gledhill and Paul Foulstone coming into the 17 with Alfie Dean and Jonah Parsons missing out. There were some key positional tweaks too, notably Aidan McGowan - perhaps in his final game of two-week loan from Huddersfield Giants - starting at full-back, Butterworth moving to the wing and Walshaw starting at centre.

Kear’s counterpart, Kyle Eastmond, also made some alterations from the side which picked up a first victory since April last week. James Woodburn-Hall was called into action after missing the last three games through injury, replacing the presently-injured Jack Hansen in the halves.

Owen McCarron also missed out through injury and, with Will Calcott unwell, Ronan Dixon came into the pack, as did Zack McComb. Maxime Jobe started from the bench for his fifth appearance since signing in May.

With persistent, heavy rain falling from the grey, moody skies - a world away from last weekend’s scorching temperatures - it was hardly surprising to see errors and penalties galore.

Fax, in particular, were very Jekyll and Hyde. A high shot by Tangata on Joe Burton was followed by a scrumptious break forward by the excellent David Nofoaluma. That set, however, culminated with Saltonstall, on his own milestone day, dropping the slippery ball.

Two more penalties followed. The second of which enabled Batley to take an early two-pointer through the boot of Woods.

Again, however, the Panthers continued to be hit-and-miss. Nofoaluma passed to Dayon Sambou but he couldn’t take it in properly. Fax followed that with a great chase by Graham and Ben Crooks to close down McGowan. But they were the masters of their own undoing as they were thwarted by not getting back onside.

However, Eastmond’s men finally clicked midway through the first half to hit the front in splendid style with Jouffret producing a wonderful looping pass to Crooks who quickly found Graham to fly over in the far corner.

By this stage though, the penalty count was 5-2 in the Bulldogs’ favour and the home side, playing down the famous slope in the first half, got into a groove of their own.

They forced a goal-line drop-out and were held up on the line a couple of times before finally making the pressure count with Walshaw crashing over from close range after great work from Alistair Leak.

More Fax errors followed as Graham was caught offside, allowing Woods to make it 10-6 at half-time.

Fax, now playing down the hill, had plenty of the ball in decent territory pressure at the start of the second half but they could not convert it into points.

It was almost a sucker-punch when Batley scored from their first real attack of the second 40 when Butterworth dived over.

It looked like an unassailable lead, especially when Graham was denied a second try when he went into touch before grounding the ball. Batley players celebrated like they had scored a try of their own.

But Saltonstall was left celebrating on his special day after great work by Jouffret and Nofoaluma to make it 16-10 before Graham finally got his second to get the Panthers to within two points.

And the turnaround was complete when Tangata stole in after McGowan failed to keep hold of a tricky high bomb from Jouffret as Fax leapt back into the play-off places.

Batley: McGowan, Butterworth, Greensmith, Walshaw, Burton, White, Woods, Gledhill, Moore, Cooper, Bateman, Manning, Blake

Interchanges: Leak, High, Foulstone, Flynn

Tries: Walshaw, Butterworth

Conversions: Woods (2)

Penalties: Woods (2)

Halifax: Nofoaluma, Saltonstall, Sambou, Crooks, C Graham, Woodburn-Hall, Jouffret, Inman, McComb, Tangata, Douglas, Halafihi, Dixon

Interchanges: O’Brien, Fairbank, Cowen, Jobe

Tries: Graham (2), Saltonstall, Tangata

Conversions: Jouffret

Referee: Scott Mikalauskas