Barrow v Batley Bulldogs: Let’s go out and enjoy ourselves at Barrow, urges boss Matt Diskin

It has been a tough year for the club which is still reeling from the tragic death of young player Archie Bruce after a game in Toulouse last month. Batley bring the curtain down on their Betfred Championship campaign away to Barrow Raiders tomorrow (3pm) and Diskin said: “It is a tough place to go, but we are going there with nothing to lose.

“We can’t go any further down in the league so we can throw the ball about, try and enjoy ourselves and finish on a high.”

Some players will be playing their final game for Batley and that will give them more motivation.

“Given the experiences we’ve had over the last few weeks we weren’t emotionally or mentally ready for a game last week,” Diskin said of the 64-0 home loss to Featherstone Rovers.

“I have still got my doubts about whether we are for this week, but we are in a better place than we were last week.

“We’ll just keep making positive strides and go up there and try and finish well because the reality of sport is teams are very rarely together as a whole longer than one season.”

Diskin, who has been in charge for two years, is out of contract after tomorrow’s game and said a decision will be made on his future once the season has finished.