‘Outstanding’ attitude and fight delights Craig Lingard as Batley Bulldogs look for eighth successive win against London Broncos

The Bulldogs welcome the Broncos to the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium on Sunday, June 25 (kick off 3pm) as the league’s form team, having won ten out of their previous 12 fixtures, pushing them to outright second in the table, with only Featherstone Rovers ahead of them by six points.

“It’s a phenomenal achievement,” admitted Lingard. “There’s still a long way to go between now and the end of the season but if you go back to the start of the season and you said that we’d be second after 15 games, I’d take it, of course I would, especially after losing two out of our first three as well.

“Although the performances haven’t necessarily been as clinical as we want them to be, the way they have dug deep and fought for each other has been getting better and better each week. Attitude-wise and the digging in for each other has been outstanding.

“Execution-wise and game-plan-wise, it’s not been as ideal as we need it to be but sometimes you don’t necessarily need that, you just need to get the victories and find a way to win and, luckily for us, this team we have got at the minute are finding a way to win every week.”

Lingard, however, is wary of a Broncos outfit who, despite losing their past two games, he believes will improve in the second half of the season. He said:

“They have strengthened and they have recruited well. They’ve got Dean Whare, an ex NRL Super League and New Zealand international in the centres. Corey Norman could be making his debut this week as well who will bring a different dimension to them. They have signed Rob Butler from Wakefield.

“I tipped them at the start of the season to be the dark horses based on the fact that they always start the season slow and, when the French league finishes, they generally recruit players from that league.

“In the second half of the season London normally pick up with a timely run towards the play-offs quite well, like they did last season. They just missed out, left it a little bit too late, but they were one of the form teams at the end of last season.

“I expect something similar from them in the second half of this season. Hopefully we can catch them before they hit that purple patch that they normally get and avoid some of their dangerous players and make it eight wins on the bounce.”

Giving an update on his squad, Lingard said:

“We are down to the last 18 fit bodies. Maybe we’re pushing that a little bit by allowing people to go out on loan but I want people to play rather than being sat on the sidelines. It is a little bit of a gamble week by week

“I’m quite happy to send people out on loan to get that game time, like Oli Burton, Johnny Campbell and Samy Kibula, who need those minutes to keep ticking over and playing and then they’re ready to go when we need them.”