Batley injury doubts for Rovers encounter

Correspondent

Batley Bulldogs coach Karl Harrison has doubts over Paul Handforth (dead leg), Josh Griffin (ankle) and Byron Smith (knee).

The Bulldogs’ 56-4 win over Keighley has kept them in the race for the Co-operative Championship play-offs.

Harrison said: “We were dominant in every position.

“Our major goal this season was getting in the six, and results went our way with Widnes and Toulouse not getting bonus points. We’re still in with a fighting chance of getting in the six.

“We’re struggling for numbers at the moment but it should be a tremendous game against Featherstone.”

Tom Saxton could return for Featherstone Rovers, who will otherwise have the same squad that lost to Sheffield last week in a surprise 32-30 defeat.

Featherstone coach Daryl Powell said: “We were a bit off the pace.

“We were disappointed with the way we went about certain aspects of our performance, and we haven’t conceded that many points this season apart from when we played Warrington.

“We’re disappointed, but you learn a fair bit from defeats. We’re going into a crucial period and it will give us a bit of a kick up the backside. We’ll get plenty out of it.”

He added: “We’ll move on, and make sure that we get better and learn from the things that didn’t quite work out for us against Sheffield.”