Batley Bulldogs 18 Halifax 16: Manning brace sees off Halifax to cement Batley’s play-off spot

BATLEY Bulldogs guaranteed their place in the Championship play-offs by ending a four-game losing streak with a nailbiting two-point victory over Halifax.

Second rower Dane Manning capitalised on an early chance when he outwitted two defenders to race over for the first of his two tries after only three minutes.

The slick moving Halifax outfit quickly levelled as second row Ryan Clayton stormed upfield and created a huge gap for supporting loose forward Paul Smith to charge through and touch down. Stand-off Danny Jones landed the conversion to level the scores.

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But the game tilted Batley’s way on the stroke of half-time when scrum-half Paul Mennell, who had spearheaded a number of attacks, unleashed a long kick to the corner which wingman Jonny Campbell collected in mid-air before twisting and landing over the tryline.

Paul Handforth’s second conversion was a beauty as the ball noticeably changed trajectory to glide between the uprights giving the Bulldogs a 12-6 interval lead.

They moved further ahead when they took advantage of superior numbers – Smith was sinbinned a minute earlier for kicking the ball away after a penalty award against Halifax – leaving Mennell to provide a peach of a pass which sent Manning racing over for another try without a hand being laid on him.

But the visitors quickly got back in the game after Batley’s substitute George Flanagan was also sinbinned for interfering in a referee rebuke. While he was absent Halifax launched a quickfire attack allowing stand-off Jones to sell a tremendous dummy and go over for a try which he converted to narrow the gap.

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Halifax had built up momentum and wingman Paul White was only prevented from scoring by a tremendous last-gasp tackle from Reittie. But there was no stopping substitute Joe Chandler two minutes later as he stormed over the line.

This time, however, goalkicker Jones narrowly failed to convert and that tantalising two-point difference proved vital.

Batley played some frustrating attacking football in the latter stages but raised their defensive game to deny Halifax another point.

Batley: Preece; Reittie, Williams, Maun, Campbell; Handforth, Mennell; Smith, Lythe, Potter, Bretherton, Manning, Lindsay. Substitutes: Flanagan, Toohey, Hesketh, Tootill.

Halifax: Greenwood; White, Haley, Nash, Worrincy; Jones, Bowman; Gannon, Beswick, Cherryholme, Clayton, Bannister, Smith. Substitutes: Aizue, Penkywicz, Barlow, Chandler.

Referee: J Leahy (Dewsbury).