Bradford Bulls came as close as anyone has to stunning Featherstone Rovers last night.
Speaking after the game, it was put to York RLFC boss Andrew Henderson that it was a missed chance for the Bulls.
He said: “I think Bradford will almost think that they had a chance tonight, if they’d just been a little bit better with the ball themselves then they could have overcome this very good Featherstone side.
“I think that’s reflective of the level of performances that Sean and the players have set. They made that game harder than it needed to be, the one thing he’ll take is that they won ugly and they found a way to win and they won against a team in decent form coming into the contest. I suppose in come respects they’re probably fortunate that Bradford weren’t at their best tonight either because I think if Bradford had been at their best then there might have been a different outcome.”
Meanwhile, Kevin Brown echoed those thoughts: “I agree, you could sense the disappointment and dejection from Mark Dunning and I don’t think that’s because they lost the game, I think it’s because they knew that Featherstone were there for the taking tonight.
“Longy is rightfully upset with the performance because they were poor, at their standards they were unbelievable at Keighley. Tonight at home with the owner coming out and saying he wants more fans coming in, the way to do that is playing your best stuff at home. Tonight they didn’t do that and they almost looked like they were trying to put on too much of a show, especially at the end of the game where the forwards were over playing.”
Brown then said that Featherstone were beatable and that Henderson’s York side could be the one to do it:
“100%, if I was a coach or a player I’d be thinking ‘I can’t wait to go there’, there’s nothing to lose and they are beatable. They’ll get beat this year, they’ll definitely get beat this year and it might be Hendo’s team.”