Featherstone/Batley: Coaches frustrated, but proud after derby clash

Rovers are already guaranteed a place in the Betfred Championship Shield final, while only a freak series of results could see Bulldogs relegated.

Neither coach was happy with his side’s performance, but Duffy said: “I am proud of the lads who have come through there after two massive injuries early on with Scott Wheeldon and Sam Brooks.

“I am proud of the boys for coming back and getting the win.

“We errored a lot in the first half when we had good positions with the ball. That is because our pivots weren’t getting us around the field.

“We discussed it at half-time and once they got their hands on the ball they were really dangerous.

“Back-to-back tries got us through the game, [but] I am unhappy with our errors again.

“It is all at the play the ball, there are only so many drills at training we can do for that, but we are not learning from it.”

Of Featherstone’s injuries, Duffy said: “Scott looks like he has got a bad knee injury and Sam might have fractured his eye socket.

“Scott got a big shot off Alex Rowe and just twisted, it was just a bit unfortunate really and he couldn’t come back on. Brooks had a collision with [Batley’s] Brad Day and I think they are in a similar situation with their eye sockets.

“It doesn’t look too good that one.”

Diskin confirmed Day also has a suspected fractured eye socket and, reflecting on his side’s performance, he said: “It is frustrating from our point of view.

“I thought we dominated for long periods, but we didn’t capitalise on some of the field position we had. Up to 60 minutes, we were in real control, the body language of some of the Featherstone players showed they were struggling, but some ill-discipline and some poor errors gave cheap field away and Featherstone capitalised on that.”