‘We are very good at undoing our own good work’ - Simon Grix left ‘frustrated’ as individual errors prove costly in Halifax Panthers’ thrilling draw at Bradford Bulls

The Panthers were on the verge of a brilliant 22-20 victory at Odsal when Adam Tangata took out James Segeyaro off the ball to gift the Bulls a penalty, which Declan Patton nervelessly dispatched over the sticks.

“It’s tough to take to be honest,” said Grix. “It stings a bit. Sickener. It was just a dumb play. He could have done a number of different things and chose to do the wrong one and paid the price. We all pay the price for it. We laid on a point on Bradford’s side of the table when really I thought we deserved the two.”

Grix revealed he spoke with Tangata - who wasn’t the only Fax player to make an individual error during a chaotic and dramatic West Yorkshire derby - after the game.

He said: “You can’t hide from it. These things happen but he’s not the only one who made a mistake out there but that one happened to be a telling one. This was something that could have been avoided through thinking. But when you get tired thinking becomes a little bit harder and you come up with daft stuff.

“We just need to be better. It’s frustrating because that is us in a nutshell, that last minute. We are doing enough to win games but we’re finding a way to lose them. It’s disappointing.

“The errors are not the same person, we are scattering our errors around. They hurt us. There weren’t that many today but the ones that we did make were pretty crucial. We just had to be smarter in that last minute. Instead we come away with one point, which is a tough one. It was a really hard one to take. Bradford celebrated like they had won at the end and we all moped around like we had lost. It’s a tough old game.

“I do think it is the story of our season, individual errors scattered across the field. We are very good at undoing our own good work.”

The Panthers had it all to do in the first half after a series of mistakes were eventually punished by the Bulls, who established an 8-0 lead inside the opening 20 minutes. However, they ended up leading 12-8 by half-time and had a 22-14 advantage going into the final nine minutes.

“We didn’t start well,” admitted Grix. “I thought we were really poor and our middle was ordinary at best and got rolled. Bradford started well and started smart and were pretty good with a game plan.

“We backed that up with Salty (James Saltonstall) dropping a kick, a dummy-half error and we were just camped down our end for ages. We showed a lot of character to bring that around and start winning that field position battle and the tries came once we started doing what we practised as opposed to playing the victim.

“I’ll explain that. There are bullies and victims in rugby league, you have to make a choice, which one are you going to be, and I thought that in the opening stages we were happy being victim and let them do what they wanted.

“We got back into it, half-time came around, we are not in bad shape. Second half, I thought we were good and we managed it really well. I thought the tries were ordinary. At 22-20 it’s ours to lose. We almost did and it feels like that anyway.”

Grix, however, was able to pick out a lot of positives from the performance, including the debut of Ben Crooks who signed from Keighley Cougars ahead of the game. He said:

“There was a lot of good stuff, I’m coming off super negative! Adam O’Brien off the bench was great, Brandon Moore playing big minutes, great, Zack McComb coming on and playing a position he’s not played before was mega for us.

“That’s in and amongst other good stuff. There were some really good efforts and intent from both sides.

“Crooksy was great. He showed some toughness. He did a pretty solid job and I thought his experience told at times, coming up with some good stuff. He is definitely a quality addition for us.

“It was a good game. People will have got their money’s worth. It's a really good competition but it’s a frustrating one to be a part of at times. We are so close to nailing a lot of our games which we have lost.”