As bawdy, squabbling Batley fans attracted the intervention of the stewards, someone near me shouted, "There's always someone out to spoil it for everyone else" - a comment equally applicable to their team.

Yes, Batley have a game plan. In the absence of any footballing ability whatsoever, they came to lie on in the tackle, slow down the play the ball, niggle, flop and generally break up the rhythm of the game. And they succeeded.

Whilst Martin Hall was unhappy after the game, feeling that Hornets were '...below par...', it's a credit to his team that they stuck to their task, played what football was on offer and outscored Batley by five tries to two.

Lovers of irony might appreciate Batley taking a 2-0 lead with a penalty for a play-the-ball offence, but lovers of clinical finishing were rewarded 11 minutes in as Marlon Billy took a neat pass from Matt Calland and broke from deep in Hornets territory. Hemmed in on a narrowing touchline gap he found Tawhai in close attendance. Having sucked in the last line of defence, Tawhai returned the ball to Calland who had followed up his own initial break and he crashed in for an exquisite try that was distinctly at odds with the general timbre of the game.

This sent the Batley plan into overdrive. The half slowly degenerated into a series of scrappy plays, interleafed with poor handling, untidy play-the-balls, creeping offsides and time-wasting third-man interventions in the tackle. The only hint that they might actually be there to play and not merely keep the score down was an exceptional 40-20 by scrum half Dean Lawford. Needless to say, Batley succeeded in turning possession into a sixth tackle handover. Lovely to watch.

Hornets took the initiative in the five minutes before half time. First Casey Mayberry burst through the line from 30 yards, leaving grasping tacklers in his wake as raw pace carried him over the line. Then, right in the hooter, Paul Smith exploited a huge hole in the left centre channel, smuggling the ball out of the tackle for Marlon BIlly to open his account. Half time 16-2.

In the second half, Batley began to reap the benefits of introducing Joe Nadiole - their most dangerous and creative forward by far. His direct, rangy style put Hornets defence on the back foot everytime he carried the ball. Glenn Tomlinson capitalised after 50 minutes, slumping in to score after a big Nadiole break.

Hornets negated his effort within three minutes, grinding the ball down to the Batley 20 where Dave Larder found Damian Ball in space. He obliged by stepping his way under the black dot for a debut try.

With the game realistically gone, Batley showed that they have at least one attacking ploy.
Reminiscent of Gary Murdock in last season's Hull KR game, Dean Lawford began pushing the ball behind the Hornets line with a battery of chips and grubbers.

On 70 minutes, Lawford pushed a kick along the ground, Cass dived in to score, the touch judge who was dead in-line stood his ground, only to be over-ruled by Mr Siverwood - whose freestyle policing of the ruck area helped ruin a bad game.

His interpretation of what was happening in front of him was brought into question within minutes as Batley had an almost identical effort wiped off for offside. And that was Batley's last effort.

With the game grinding to a close, Hornets worked the ball into good field position and, on the last tackle of the game, Stevo and 'Bunny' Bunyan worked the ball to Marlon Billy just feet from the line. The defender in attendance ripped the ball from his grasp, then stood back to admire his handiwork, leaving Marlon to touchdown in front of him unopposed. A fitting coup de grace.

So, a stuttering start to the season for Hornets as the influx of ball handlers needed to cover Scully's departure takes time to gel. Once roles have been established, Wood, Tawhai, Agar and Ball will provide plenty of options for Martin Hall, who will be looking to speed up the process before the trip to Hunslet.

In what was a difficult game, it was hard to single out a man of the match, but - for tireless effort in attck and defence, we're splitting it 50-50 between Wes Rogers and Joe Berry.

Martin Hall was stoicly analytical. Quoted in the press he said, "They came to do a job on us and did it - they slowed us down... we've got a lot of areas we need to improve on."

As for Batley, whilst they might not win many games this season using their ugly spoiling tactics, it'll ensure that not many teams thrash them either. Proving above all else that success really is relative.