Batley Bulldogs: Disappointed Diskin hoping for a silver lining to the season

Batley finished second on the Kingstone Press Championship Shield table and sixth overall in the second tier.

They were third in the Championship last term and Diskin said: “The second half of the season has been good, but we are a little disappointed as a group because we had aspirations of the top four.

“We fell short of that, but in one sense – when you look at our budget and money spent – we’ve finished exactly where we should have.

“That’s no comfort, but the next best thing is to have a crack at the Shield competition.”

Bulldogs will be at home to Sheffield Eagles in a sudden-death semi-final on Sunday, a week after closing their league campaign with a 34-18 win over the same opposition at Mount Pleasant.

“I was happy with the win,” Diskin said of the game two days ago. “It was a scrappy game, very whistle happy, but it was good to get a positive result building into the semi-final.

“It was nice to win, it is always good to win whether you are playing Monopoly or rugby league, but it will be a totally different scenario this week. That result doesn’t mean anything, we have got to get the result on Sunday.”