West Yorkshire derby preview: Batley Bulldogs could suffer ‘massive blow’ ahead of ‘fierce’ re-match with Bradford Bulls

Sunday’s Championship encounter at the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium (kick off 3pm) will have been marked by both sets of fans, and players, after the pair’s prickly 1895 Cup contest in March culminated with a mass brawl and the game ending 10 vs 12 men.

Dane Manning, who was sent off for his part in the late scenes, was later handed an eight-match ban.

Ironically, the upcoming re-match will be the last game of the forward’s suspension.

But the Bulldogs could be dealt a further blow with head coach Mark Moxon now sweating on news of half-back Ben White’s thumb which took a hit in the thrilling draw with Barrow Raiders last weekend.

“It is a bit of a concern at this stage,” admitted Moxon. “He may have dislocated it but we are hoping there is no underlying fracture there.

“It would be a massive blow to us if there is an issue.”

Asked if he is expecting a similarly spicy affair with the Bulls this weekend, Moxon revealed:

“It’s all on the day, we will see how the day goes. No one will take a backward step, that’s rugby league. Things just boiled over last time. Again, that’s rugby league.

“It was a good, fierce local derby last time and I am sure it will be the same again.

“Bradford are full of high profile players and have spent a lot of money on their squad this year. It’s a star-studded squad.

“But we will be there competing and giving it our best shot.”

And the Bulldogs go into the game on the back of an encouraging performance and result, 24-24, at home to high-flying Barrow last time out.

“Both teams deserved a point out of it,” Moxon said. “Barrow got off to a good start and if somebody had given me a draw at 14-0 down I’d have taken it. Barrow are second in the league, so to take a point off them is a decent point.

“Those demons that have been hanging over us were still there at the start but the things we had practised all week in training, the intensity in D and line speed, we were trying to do, so I could see the effort and the application there.

“It just wasn’t quite working for us but we stuck with it and we started to get a bit of joy ourselves.

“Then that demon on our shoulders kind of disappeared and we got somewhere back close to being us.”

He added: “We spoke after the game, saying that we can’t go back to the Sheffield or Halifax performances. We have got to go forward.

“We bashed each other around in training, so that result was carved out of hard work. People might not appreciate what goes into changing a real poor performance into a decent performance like that.

“We are all in it together. There have been no cracks in the group, in the morale, we will fight for everything.”