Black aiming for cup success
Halifax hero Ben Black is hoping he can be part of another victorious Halifax side as they prepare to take on Leigh Centurions in the Northern Rail Cup Final on Sunday.
Black entered club folklore last season when he landed the Golden Point drop-goal that won the Co-operative Championship Grand Final against Featherstone Rovers and the talented half-back is relishing the chance to play his part in another final.
“I’m really looking forward to the final because it’s a great competition to play in,” said Black. “Not a lot of people get the opportunity to play in finals during their career so it’s a special time for us because we’ve been playing regularly in finals the last few seasons, so we need to capitalise and make the most of it.
“It’s been an up and down season for us so far. We started slowly and we were maybe a bit complacent because every team wants to beat the champions and they upped their level against us and that was a huge wake up call for us. We’d been struggling but we’ve begun to find our form again in recent weeks and we’re one step closer to achieving one of our goals this season which is to win the Northern Rail Cup.
“We gained a lot of experience from last season’s Championship Grand Final victory and that’s a game we talk about a lot. We know what to expect in those high pressure situations now after that game and while there’s still pressure on the club to win and succeed, we’re all really looking forward to the game.”
Black was part of Halifax’s semi-final winning side that knocked Featherstone out of this season’s Northern Rail competition with their victory again coming courtesy of Golden Point but he’s hoping the West Yorkshire side can avoid another Golden Point scenario and win the trophy outright during the 80 minutes against Leigh.
“We’ve been lucky that we’ve won with Golden Point twice,” he said. “Obviously that’s not the way you plan to win a game and we’re hoping we won’t be in that situation again in this final but we’ll be practising our drop-goals just in case the situation should arise because you never know what is going to happen in a final.
“It’s a huge thing for any player to win a trophy so I’ll be going out there to give it 110% on the day to help the side.
“It will be a very tough match because Leigh have been the benchmark side so far all season. They’re the top team and have been all season but I think we’re big game players. We seem to lift on game on the big occasion and I feel confident that we’ll be the team lifting the trophy at the end of the 80 minutes and I can’t wait to take to the field at Blackpool.”