No panic from Halifax

Halifax coach Richard Marshall says his team will come through a tough period and bounce back after a lacklustre start to 2016.

Halifax suffered another narrow Championship defeat last weekend, going down 26-18 at home to Leigh Centurions.

“For 60 minutes we were by far the better team but they managed to get us in the end,” Marshall said.

“They’ve got some good individuals. We’re not down, we’re fine. We’d have liked to have picked up more points than we’ve got at the minute but we still know we’re a good team and if we keep working hard we’ll come through this tough period.

“We haven’t lost games by big margins but we need to be more clinical.”

Halifax meet St Helens community club Pilkington Recs in the Challenge Cup.

“We’re looking forward to the Cup game, it’s a bit of respite from the league programme but that said, we’re going to respect the opposition,” Marshall said.

“They despatched London Skolars quite convincingly so we need to treat them with a great deal of respect and we’ll be doing that.”

Pilkington Recs beat London Skolars 13-0 in round three but lost their opening league match at home to Wigan St Patricks 20-12 last week.

Bradford Bulls forward Kurt Haggerty, who is coach to his hometown side, said: “We lost to Wigan St Pats in the league and we weren’t at the races. I think we were still a little bit in Challenge Cup mode if I’m perfectly honest, we had eyes on other things.

“We thought we had a chance of beating Skolars and we worked really hard and got the win. But there’s no pressure on us to go out and win the game on Saturday.

“A lot of the lads are Saints supporters so playing at Langtree Park is fantastic for them. We just want to put a show on for the crowd.”