Panthers coach Grix demands improvement at home to Swinton after ‘laughable’ display against Widnes

Halifax will be looking to bounce back from last weekend’s 25-6 defeat to Widnes Vikings, which ended their nine-match winning run.

Looking back at the defeat, Grix was frustrated by the high number of errors.

“When you’re on a winning run, it comes to end at some point. I think we’ve got a hard-working team that tries hard, our effort is always great. But, in recent weeks we haven’t been great in possession,” he said.

“The weekend was a total anomaly really. Our effort was great again. Yes, we weren’t great in possession but the use of that word anomaly is from the amount of unforced and uncharacteristic errors. It was nothing short of shocking to be honest. For players that are getting paid to play rugby, the fundamental stuff was way off.

“If I wasn’t so close to it and invested in it, I would have been laughing in the stands to be quite honest. It was just one after another.”

The result in Widnes puts further emphasis on Sunday’s clash with bottom-of-the-table Swinton.

Grix is not only hoping for a better performance but also a result to match saying: “There needs to be an improvement on last week because that was quite laughable at times. The result is also important but the importance also lies with building momentum for the rest of the year.”

Despite sitting bottom of the Championship, the Lions have improved in recent weeks, picking up a win and a draw from their last four outings.

Grix said: “They’ve got nothing to lose. As things stand, they’re getting relegated. They are a bunch of players there who are playing for their future. Individually they’ve got a lot to play for. Collectively as well, if they have pride and respect for the shirt which I’m sure they have.

“It’s not an easy game. We beat them last time out but prior to that we’ve had some pretty poor performances against them for one reason or another. Hopefully, the loss to Widnes could be a little bit of a kick up the back side and a little bit of a reality check.”