Play-off push begins as Eagles face Batley test
Sheffield Eagles head coach Craig Lingard has called for a ‘last chance’ mentality from his side as they prepare to face former club Batley Bulldogs in Sunday’s Betfred Championship Playoff Eliminator.
The Eagles finished seventh in the regular-season table to earn home advantage, while Batley were forced into the eliminator tie against the Eagles after a final-day defeat to Salford saw them slip to 10th.
With the loser facing an immediate end to their play-off campaign, Lingard knows there is little room for error, with victory sending the winner into the second round and an away trip against either Doncaster, Widnes or Barrow next weekend.
The two sides have yet to meet this season after avoiding each other in the regular Championship fixture schedule, adding an extra element of uncertainty to Sunday’s clash.
Speaking earlier this week, Lingard outlined exactly what he believes his players will need to produce if the Eagles are to keep their play-off hopes alive.
“Our message this week is: if we lose, we’re out. There are no second chances”, said the Eagles Head Coach.
“We don’t see Sunday’s game as a free hit. We see it as a last chance, and we’ve got to be great at everything that we do.
“If we lose, we’re out of the competition, our season finishes.
“Our mentality is that we want this season to continue week on week on week.”
Lingard knows this weekend’s opponents well, having coached them from 2020 to 2023 and guided them to the Championship Million Pound Game in 2022 and the 1895 Cup Final at Wembley the following year.
Although Batley are now coached by former York boss James Ford, several members of the squad who played under Lingard remain at the club, meaning the Eagles coach knows plenty about what to expect when the two sides meet on Sunday.
He added, “Historically Batley have always been very, very difficult to beat.”
“You know what you’re going to get from Batley. It’s going to be a workmanlike performance.
“They’re going to do the basics well. They’re going to compete all the way through for the 80 minutes.
“They do the basics really well, they compete high, they end the sets with a high percentage and put it in a corner and back the defence on the back of that.
“We know what Batley are going to bring. They’ve got some quality players in there as well, so we know that we need to be on our game to be anywhere near this week.
“If we come with the same performance that we did against Widnes, we’re going to get beat. It’s as simple as that.
“It’s good for us to have that mentality switch now that we know that we need to be on it.”
Lingard went on to stress how much better the Eagles will need to be this time around, having only narrowly secured a 12-8 victory against Widnes on the final day of the regular season.
Sheffield will be without Connor Bower and Ryan Millar, who both miss out through injury, while Alex Foster begins a three-match suspension and is also unavailable for Sunday’s clash.
Those absences will leave the Eagles with a reshuffled side, but Lingard will be confident in the players available to him as they look to produce a much-improved performance and come away with another important result against Batley.
“We’ll be doing it without some bodies again”, he added.
“Ryan (Millar) and Connor (Bower) are missing with the return-to-play protocols.
“Fozzy (Alex Foster) is suspended as well for the next three games, which is massively disappointing for us.
“I think there’s one significant one that’s going to be missing too, which is disappointing.
“There are not too many options left with the players that we’ve got out, but again, we’ll have to cope with that one and hopefully we can do the job.
“It’s just been difficult getting that all the way through the season,” Lingard admitted, but he knows those available now have to step up, with a simple message for his players: “It’s that next person mentality and it’s up to them to come in and do a job.”
Tickets remain on sale for Sunday’s Betfred Championship Playoff Eliminator between Sheffield Eagles and Batley Bulldogs, which takes place at the MEPS International Home of Football Stadium in Dronfield (3pm KO).
Secure tickets now for the playoff clash now at www.sheffieldeagles.com.