Batley Bulldogs v Sheffield Eagles: Matt Diskin wants his side to put on a show in Jo Cox Memorial game

Batley Bulldogs will throw open the gates – off the field at least – for tomorrow’s visit of Sheffield Eagles in the Betfred Championship (3pm).
Batley coach Matt Diskin.Batley coach Matt Diskin.
Batley coach Matt Diskin.

Bulldogs are offering free admission for the annual Jo Cox memorial game.

A big crowd is expected to celebrate the life of the Batley and Spen MP who was murdered three years ago.

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And coach Matt Diskin is keen for his team to entertain them with a much better performance on attack following last week’s 16-0 defeat at Bradford Bulls.

“We had a fantastic occasion last year on Jo Cox memorial day,” Diskin recalled.

“We hope the weather holds off and we get a big crowd, but regarding form we are coming off the back of a loss where we were very under-par with the ball in our hands.

“We have worked hard to correct that this week.

“Last week we looked like a team who hadn’t played together and it was nothing like the previous couple of weeks’ performances.”

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Diskin admitted: “It was a strange one, we competed in a lot of areas of the game – we had more possession and a lower error rate, but we did nothing with it.

“It’s all right having all that possession, but you have to test the opposition and we didn’t do that.

“We were too lateral and our line running was too narrow. If we were still there now I don’t think we would have scored a try. We like to play rugby so that wasn’t like us at all.”

Diskin is also keen for Batley to wipe away the memory of one of their most disappointing defeats this season, a 44-16 drubbing in South Yorkshire three months ago.

“We owe Sheffield one,” he said

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“We got embarrassed by them earlier on in the year and we want to put that right.

“You can’t really predict what will happen when we play Sheffield.

“They are either big scoring games or very, very tight.

“They have got some quality in their team and some ex-players of ours who we know are fantastic players and will be wanting to come back to their old ground and make an impression.

“We want to correct the embarrassment at the start of the year and put a better showing in this week.”