Swinton Lions v Batley Bulldogs: The glass is half full for Diskin ahead of Bulldogs’ ‘big game’ at Lions

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Batley are ninth in the table, one place ahead of tomorrow’s hosts Swinton Lions on for and against and only three clear of second-bottom Barrow Raiders.

Two teams will be relegated at the end of the season, but Bulldogs coach Matt Diskin insists his focus is still on closing the four-point gap to eighth-placed Halifax.

“It is a big game,” he said of tomorrow’s 3pm kick-off. “Swinton have snuck up on us. We’ve missed an opportunity to kick on up the league and they are on our heels.

“It is a big game for both sides, but we have still got Halifax in touching distance if we can put a run of results together.

“We are a glass half full club, we are still looking up the table and that won’t change.”

Bulldogs were beaten 40-10 at home by leaders Toronto Wolfpack last Sunday. Diskin said: “The effort and application was fantastic, but we’ve got to add a bit of smarts to that.

“We have to be a bit more clinical. We had a high number of errors and they didn’t come from good rugby, they were from basic handling errors and knock-ons in the ruck.

“If we can cut those out and be a bit more clinical with the ball we will come away with the result.”