Batley boss Craig Lingard loves how no one gives his side a chance in their bid for Super League.
He’s seen it all before with people writing off his Championship part-timers at their peril. But they have again defied the odds - and opponents with far bigger budgets - to set up today’s Grand Final decider at huge favourites Leigh Centurions. Remarkably, having dumped out Barrow and then stunned big-spending Featherstone, they stand just 80 minutes away from the elite.
Leaders Leigh have a star-studded squad, including ex-Kangaroos winger Blake Ferguson, former England wideman Josh Charnley and newly-crowned Championship player of the year Edwin Ipape. It’s little wonder Batley have a 38 point start with title sponsors Betfred. Lingard admitted: “Nobody’s giving us a chance. It’s a free hit for us. We know the size of the task but we’ll be doing the best we can and use our strengths.
“The strengths we used against Featherstone are the collective rather than the individuals' and hopefully that can give us a half decent chance against Leigh. We know they have the star players more than we do but our teamwork and ethos, built over the last two seasons, will hopefully be enough to give us a chance.”
And the modest but consistently well-run West Yorkshire club will accept the Super League invite if they do pull off one of the greatest shocks in recent history. Lingard conceded: “It’d be huge. It’d be one of the biggest achievements in the club’s entire history. And there’d be some meetings called pretty quickly Monday morning to see what we’re going to do!”
Asked how far his squad's remarkable team spirit can get them, he added: "Well, it’s got us to the final. It got us to the semi-final last year (at Toulouse) and now the final. If you get the right group of people together, and a collective attitude, it's crucial. Sometimes players fit clubs and clubs fit players. It’s about fitting the right people into the group as you can bring one person who could destroy everything, The recruitment process added to the group we’d already built has been key and we're looking forward to Sunday."
