With 'Fax on a good run and still smarting from their early season woes at the hands of the Rovers, it seemed that this was destined to be a key game in the race for the Championship and after narrowly defeating Leigh recently Matt Calland and his men, were looking to get themselves back into contention at the top of the table.
Rovers shuffled things a little this week as Sam Smeaton started in the centre with Jesse Joe moving out to take a wing birth in the absence of Jon Steel and Liam Welham pairing up with Tommy Saxton on the other flank. This week saw the return of Jamie Field at loose foward. with Tim Spears and Matty Dale making up the back three. The bench saw Iain Morrison, Dane Manning and Ross Divorty alongside Andy Kain.
Rovers were again on the board early with tries from Liam Welham and Jamie Field but, very importantly in the context of the game, managed to repel 4 back to back sets as Fax piled on the pressure and desparately tried to break the Rovers defence before Jesse Joe went over wide out giving us a 14 point cushion approaching half time, but right on the hooter some of the good work was undone as Halifax struck beneath the posts to go in 6-14 at the interval.
Starting the second half in a similar fashion Ross Divorty scored early and when Andy Kain created a second for Liam Welham, the travelling fans were making all the noise and looking good value for their 26-6 lead.
As the Rovers relaxed and began to throw the ball around, again one or two loose passes and some back to back penalties kept Halifax in the game and with tries from speedy ex Wakefield and Salford winger Paul White and a late try under the posts from the industrious Ben Black Halifax collected their bonus point reward.
An excellent all around team performance from the Rovers tonight, some good scrambling defence, and a couple of well taken tries from centre Liam Welham, which earned him the Sky T.V. man of the match award, puts us now clear at the top of the Championship, and with another short break before our next fixture supporters can rest a little easier for the moment looking down at the chasing pack.
