James Ford aiming for 'better' Batley Bulldogs performance at Salford after dramatic late win over rivals

The Bulldogs left it very, very late to beat Heavy Woollen rivals Dewsbury Rams in the derby at Mount Pleasant on Good Friday, with Josh Woods’ dramatic drop-goal with barely 90 seconds remaining securing a 21-20 victory.

It was the first time Batley had led in the contest, played in blustery conditions, but it was enough to secure a third win in their opening seven Betfred Championship fixtures under Ford.

And now the head coach is wanting his side to be even better when they travel across the Pennines to the newly-reformed side at the weekend.

He told the Reporter Series: “We have got to perform better than what we did against Dewsbury. We need to take it one week at a time and knock off as many as we possibly can.

“I truly believe that there is a team in that dressing room, we just need to find and build our games a little bit, and when we do we will be doing alright.

“We need to focus on ourselves. I understand the difficulties of coaching and managing a club in financial difficulty and when negative momentum builds it is a challenge, it is draining and I hope everybody over at Salford is alright but we have just got to focus on us and get our game going.

“We have got to build our game individually and collectively and aim for being a fair bit better than what we were against Dewsbury.”

Immediately after Good Friday’s game, Ford confirmed that no injuries were reported and that a couple of other players returning from injury could be “considered back for selection.”