IT WAS A SPECIAL VICTORY LAST WEEK OVER WIGAN
I thought it was a great second half performance last week; in fact it was one of the best comebacks I have ever been involved in. The situation of the game, the start that Wigan have had to the season, being 20-0 down with the quality of their side, made the comeback all the more remarkable and to go on and win the game late on shows the character and the team spirit and determination of the group of players we have got at Bradford. We certainly don't want to be doing that every week because it uses a lot of energy, both physical and mental and we need to be playing for the full eighty minutes and get our butts straight into games but that doesn't always happen and last Friday was one of those days.
A lot has been talked about the super fitness of the Wigan side but we were far the stronger side in the last quarter and we have to give full credit to Geoff Evans for that. He has certainly got us in great shape at the moment and that fitness played a full part in our win. Wigan suddenly found they had to make tackles and they were scrambling about and dropping balls and missing tackles and we were good value for it in the second period. We got it all wrong in the first half but we had a chat at half time and said that if we stuck to the game plan we could get back into it. Steve was very calm at the break and pointed out some of our errors and all the boys were talking well. We decided we'd go out and try and get a score and then another and see where we were at that point. We knew that if we stuck to what we had trained to do all week we would score some tries and if we did that we knew we could keep them under the pump. We needed to keep in the arm wrestle and I think the main point was when we defended our line for three sets at 20-12. We could easily have conceded a try in that period but we stepped it up, came back up their end and put another try on them. OX scored a couple of great individual tries and then Glenn Hall got one right at the end. I was really pleased for Glenn because, as he has admitted, he was struggling a bit to adapt. He is a very, very good professional and he is very hard on himself and he deserved his success on the night. It wasn't just the try either because he had a fine all round game. He's a good bloke and you could see by the reaction to his try just what he means to us all. It was a great pass from Heath too. A very good short ball with some deception and a fine end to a great game and you could see the team spirit, both from the lads on the field and on the bench, we have at the club.
There was certainly a celebration in the dressing room after the game!!! The ‘helicopter' came out and I'd like to apologise to everyone now, the supporters, the club and SKY for what happened. I hope I didn't offend too many people. I was just celebrating and forgot all about the SKY cameras but SKY admitted after that they don't usually have them on at that time. I was just singing the celebration song and before I knew it, it had happened. I got loads of text messages - more than I have ever had before - after the game and I thought they would be saying good work for the win but they were all on about the changing rooms after and for the first time in my life I have made it onto ‘You Tube' but for all the wrong reasons!
We certainly can't afford to go twenty points behind this week, or indeed any week and we will need to be sharp right from the kick off against Warrington. They are a very good side and they have recruited well in the off season and they are in fine form. They are always tough to beat at their ground and they have a lot of people playing with confidence at the moment. Yet again it's on SKY TV and there's no better incentive for a player to go out and perform in front of the cameras. Hopefully we can get another win but we know we can't dwell on what we did last week; we have to go out there and work hard for the points.
Last Saturday it was the launch of Jamie Langley's Testimonial and it turned out to be a great night. He's a great bloke and deserved a good night and I would like to thank all those who turned out. I think it was good timing as well with the result last Friday because everyone was certainly in a happy mood and it made it a bit more special. Of course ‘Wagga' had to be involved and I said I would get my head shaved and it made about £200.00 on the auction!! I put too much Gel on my hair and then didn't charge up my razors correctly so instead of a number 2 or 3 I ended up having to have the blade and it's all off now! The boys have been giving me some stick and saying I look like Andy Senior, our masseur!!
I thought the crowd were great on Friday and it was like old times at the Grattan Stadium. The noise in the second half was tremendous and it really lifted the side. I hope we can generate that kind of atmosphere at the Halliwell-Jones Stadium on Saturday.