Posted on Friday, 11 April 2008 05:16PM by

Okay, I admit it – I was wrong. Nothing unusual about that, and though I could give you a dozen excuses for last night’s performance, that’s all they’d be – excuses. The weather was abysmal, only Batley got just as wet as we did; and though Mr. Hewer performed in his usual erratic manner he wasn’t the one who seemed unable to string half a dozen moves together without putting the ball to ground. Nor was he the one who failed to play out set after set, putting us under almost constant pressure in the second half. There’s a section in my notepad towards the end of the first half that just about sums up last night’s performance. It reads – ‘Rams knock on. Crouthers and Bretherton yellow carded. Rams knock on again… and again… ‘ By the time Austin Buchanan slid over for his late try, the missus and I were standing in acres of open space on the South Stand. Space that fifteen minutes earlier had been full of Rams supporters still trying to cheer on their team, and there’s the problem. The diehards will always turn up, they’ve been there before, but how much longer will the less committed supporters trail up to the Rams stadium to watch their side roll over the way we did in the last quarter? If we can’t see off the Bulldogs on our own midden, then we have a problem. Already I’m looking at the fixture list, wondering where the next point will come from. Yet things began so well with the Rams early pressure resulting in a try in the corner on the Main stand side. I’m told it was Langers who scored it, but seeing as the speakers in the South Stand were out again I can’t be sure. Patch Walker continued his excellent run with the boot by landing the touchline conversion, adding a simple penalty a few minutes later. Rams were deservedly up by eight, and I settled back rather smugly to watch my forecast of a comfortable victory played out under the floodlights. Our problems began 5 minutes later when Dean Lawford’s clearance kick was charged down, and gathered up by Danny Maun who ran unopposed to the posts. King kicked an easy conversion, and though Walker added a second penalty around the 18-minute mark, the uncertainty in the Dewsbury ranks was beginning to show. Right away a dropped ball gave the Bulldogs position on the right, and from the resulting scrum, they swung the ball quickly to the left wing. A simple enough move, but one that totally outflanked the Rams defence and allowed Ollie Marns to race in for their 2nd try. The rest of the half was fierce and even, though King’s penalty on the half hour eased the Bulldogs into a 12 – 10 lead at half time. We weren’t doing ourselves any favours though. At one point we fumbled the ball around our 20-metre line 3 times in 5 minutes. Even so the game was still there for the side that wanted it most. There were only 2 points in it and, ever the optimist, I felt the break would give us the chance to regroup, a misconception that lasted all of 10 minutes. That was the time it took the Bulldogs to work the blind side and send in King for their 3rd try. At that point I felt we were struggling to hang on. The Dogs were keeping us at arm’s length, cutting out the errors and waiting for us to make ours, which we did with a depressing regularity. Loose forward Craig Farrell added a drop goal before Paul Mennell virtually sealed matters with a try under the posts on 66 minutes to which King added the goal. Three minutes later Luke Stenchion took a leaf out of Mennell’s playbook, skipping through a static defence for yet another try. King added the goal and suddenly the Bulldogs were out of sight. Even that late score from Buchanan, goaled by Walker wasn’t enough to rescue a bonus point for the Rams and the whistle went with the score 29 – 16 to the Bulldogs. This standard of performance just isn’t good enough. We saw several ‘big name’ players who just didn’t cut it last night, players who haven’t done so for much of the season. There were far too many fumbles, and too many missed tackles. When we did try to move the ball wide, we did so without conviction, and backing up seemed a totally alien concept at times. For maybe an hour we were in with a shout, but that last 30 minutes was embarrassing and if we don’t get our act together sharpish we could soon be staring NL2 full in the face. TEAMS :- DEWSBURY RAMS :- Austin Buchanan; Bryn Powell; Chris Langley; Andrew Bostock; Kane Epati; Josh Weeden; Dean Lawford; Aaron Trinder; Liam Finn; Dominic Maloney; Martin Robinson; Alex Bretherton; Patrick Walker. SUBS :- Luke Haigh; Ryan Glynn; Tere Glassie; Jake Wilson. BATLEY BULLDOGS : - Ian Preece; Ollie Marns; Kevin King; Danny Maun; Balou Fagborun; Francis Maloney; Paul Mennell; Luke Stenchion; Kris Lythe; Byron Smith; Kevin Crouthers; Tim Spears; Craig Farrell. SUBS :- Ashley Lindsay; Jon Simpson; Anthony Henderson; Mark Toohey. Referee :- Mr. Gareth Hewer. Attendance 2,029. Rams Man of the Match :- Alex Bretherton. Match report by Chris Osbaldeston