Featherstone Rovers 20 Batley Bulldogs 21: Flanagan’s golden moment as Batley knock out Rovers

They will face defending champions Sheffield Eagles at Leigh next Sunday having completed a remarkable comeback to stun favourites Featherstone Rovers in their first-ever semi-final appearance.

Initially, John Kear’s side looked like they had suffered stage fright yesterday as they fell 18-0 behind at opponents who have so much big-game experience having finished top for the last four years and featured in three successive Grand Finals.

But Batley – who finished the regular campaign in fifth – fought back to force the game into extra time as Ben Black slotted a 76th-minute penalty to level at 20-20

Featherstone still had opportunities to win it with the usually trusty Liam Finn twice badly miscuing with drop goal attempts.

However, the determined visitors showed more composure and so it was that in the 86th minute of a remarkable contest, with all the home defence ready to charge at the waiting Black and fellow kicker Gareth Moore, Flanagan coolly ran out of dummy half and slotted the crucial 20m drop goal himself.

“We’ve rehearsed all that as we knew they’d spot Moorey and Blacky so you need an alternative,” revealed an elated Kear afterwards, Black having struck a golden point drop goal to win 
15-14 at Leigh in the last round.

“Someone said to me you won’t get another golden point and I said if we do we’ll take it as we’ll be happy with it.

“We’d been there, seen it and got the T-shirt and so it proved.

“That was important today as at the end of full-time there was no problem with the players. We just said we’d been here before and know how to play golden point so let’s go out, commit ourselves fully and do it. They did just that.”

Few could not have envisaged what eventually occurred when Batley – missing suspended Jonny Campbell and seeing on-loan Huddersfield Giants forward Jacob Fairbank suffer a first-half dislocated shoulder – conceded three unanswered tries inside the opening half-hour.

Full-back Miles Greenwood endured a couple of dodgy moments fielding kicks which led to Greg Worthington muscling over in the fifth minute and Ian Hardman adding another 10 minutes later.

Full-back Hardman added his second try in the 28th minute and Finn soon added a penalty to his two earlier conversions.

However, Batley gave themselves hope when Alex Rowe bulldozed over between the posts just before the break.

Moore’s conversion made it 18-6 and Batley – with their greater forward strength off the bench – took control of the second period.

Finn was forced to kick a penalty to ease his side’s nerves after Greg Johnson had a try ruled out for a forward pass. Kear’s side did struggle for creativity, though, until prop Byron Smith took the direct route and barrelled over.

Worthington and Tom Saxton managed to hold the charging forward up over the line but he managed to squeeze out an offload for Gareth Potts to score.

Moore converted from wide out to leave it 20-12 with 15 to go and they duly got to within touching distance when Johnson rounded off an impressive handling movement in the 71st minute.

Moore added the goal and then levelled after nailing a penalty from just inside Featherstone’s half after James Lockwood’s high tackle on Paul Mennell.

Black looked like winning it in the penultimate minute as he raced clear but found Liam Walmsley in support, who was hauled down when Jason Walton out wide would have surely scored. However, it mattered little as Batley produced in extra-time after the hosts had made a hash of their drop goal attempts.

Frustrated Featherstone have now finished top for four years running but only actually won one title in 2011.

Sean Long, who was employed as football manager in August until the end of the season to try and cure that ill, revealed afterwards that he will not be staying on.

How, though, his side could have done with the former Great Britain scrum-half’s legendary drop goal prowess on the field.

Long – who had overseen seven successive wins – admitted he thought Finn would convert that second attempt but felt his side should have had a penalty in the previous play.

“There was a dead set high tackle on Sam Barlow right at the left-hand side of the posts,” he argued.

“It knocked his head off. If it hadn’t been a high tackle he’d have played the ball normal and we’d have got a quick play the ball and the drop goal.

“But it slowed him right down and he (Finn) had a load of pressure on.

“That’s rugby league, though, and I’ve said to all the lads they’ve done me proud and themselves for the last eight weeks.

“It’s hard to keep players on such a high for so long. We won the League Leaders’ Shield and I’ve been riding them for weeks saying ‘look, that’s gone’. But sometimes it plays in the back of your mind and it wasn’t to be.

“We had to rejig after we lost Andrew Bostock in the warm-up and we missed him as we needed one more big man in the middle.

“It was there for everyone to see that Batley had a couple of big lads coming off the bench and they rolled us in the middle.”

Featherstone: Hardman; Sharp, Mellars, Worthington, Saxton; Kain, Finn; Crossley, Kaye, James, Dale, Lockwood, Bussey. Substitutes: Barlow, Hepworth, Bryan, Ellis.

Batley: Greenwood; Greenwood, Walton, Bretherton, Johnson; Black, Moore; Smith, Mennell, Mullaney, Fairbank, Davies, Lindsay. Substitutes: Flanagan, Hirst, Rowe, Walmsley.

Referee: C Leatherbarrow (RFL).