Coach Matt Diskin expects even more improvement from freescoring Batley Bulldogs

Bulldogs ran in 11 tries to thrill a 2,106 crowd – attracted by free admission to celebrate the life of the late local MP Jo Cox – and Diskin was delighted with how his men handled the occasion.

“In the first half we played the conditions really well,” he said. “We backed our conditioning and we kept the ball in play, controlled field position and possession and Sheffield struggled to deal with it.

“The first-half performance was near-perfect, though there’s always elements you need to be better at, such as kick pressure.

“The second half got a bit scrappy and there is still room for improvement, but it’s good to be able to say that when you are winning by 70 points.”

Batley are sixth in the Kingstone Press Championship, nine points adrift of fourth-placed Featherstone Rovers.

Diskin stressed: “The top-four was our initial goal and it looks as though we’ve fallen short of that, but we want to finish as high as we can.

“We’ve gone above Sheffield now and we need to keep chipping away.”

Diskin will check on injuries to Alex Rowe and Alistair Leak ahead of Sunday’s trip to Rochdale Hornets.