Tuesday's Coming Too!
The non-traditional 'Easter Tuesday' fixture sees the serious business of the LHF National League begin with the visit of Batley Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs have had something of a mixed bag of a National Cup - looking likely, at the time of writing, to progress at least as far as the qualifying playoff - but also having suffered a morale-sapping 54-nil flogging at Doncaster.
Like many clubs, Batley also enter the National League fray with a keen eye on finances. With just 500 supporters turning out for their Challenge Cup win over St Gaudens, chairman Kevin Nicholas has called for supporters to get behind the team in order to ensure financial stability at Mount Pleasant. Indeed, batley lost £2,000 hosting their third round tie and, like so many other clubs across the National Leagues, are hoping that the fans rally round for their next round tie at home to Super League whipping boys Leigh.
Gary Thornton has assembled an industrious side with a work-hard ethic. Key to making the Batley side tick is the half back hub of Neil Roden and Barry Eaton. We've seen Roden's abilities at way too close quarters in an Oldham shirt and Eaton's love of applying boot to ball has passed into RL legend.
As always, Batley will come with a big no-nonsense pack, but it's the back three of Sean Richardson, Dane Morgan and Mark Toohey that provides the real traction.
No doubt, Bobbie will wait until after Good Friday's game with Oldham before deciding on his side, but the Easter break will bring Lee Birdseye (leg injury) and Dave Alstead (virus) back into contention.
As the National Cup takes a back seat, we start about our bread and butter work - and it's important to get our season underway with a good display and a positive result. With the long haul in front of us, it's important that Hornets' supporters get stuck in from the outset too - and whilst a Tuesday night may not be particularly conducive to drawing a bumper crowd, we can all do what we can to swell the gate and get behind Bobbie's tilt at the League.
No more arsing around - from 7.30 Tuesday it all gets very serious indeed. So get down to Spotland, bring a mate or two and lets get the 2005 season off with a bang.
You'd be mad to miss it.
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