Team spirit was key for Fax in cup triumph
Halifax Panthers’ head coach Simon Grix was left ‘really happy’ with his side’s ‘togetherness’ in their remarkable Challenge Cup third round triumph at Championship leaders Featherstone Rovers on Sunday.
You have to go all the way back to 2017 since Fax were victorious at the Millennium Stadium - a game in which Grix, himself, starred in. They failed, miserably, in round two of the 2023 season with Fev going onto win their opening five league games.
But Grix’s men upset the odds and produced a fantastic cup upset to clinch a memorable 18-22 success and progress into Wednesday’s fourth round draw.
After the game, a delighted Grix said: “It’s a good win coming up against the Championship big boys. We haven’t won here since I was playing, in 2017.
"I had almost forgotten what it was like to get some success here. I am really happy with the result, although I thought we did it the hard way. For both sides there were some absolute calamities in and amongst, and it was odd to be fair.
“But I thought our togetherness was where it needed to be; I talk about winning in 2017 - that is what that team was like. We weren’t as good as this team and we were certainly not as talented as this team that we have got now but we had some togetherness.
“Everyone is expecting Fev to come and win today and rightly so based on our last performance here a few weeks ago.
"I don’t like using the term free hit but we came here with the idea in mind of not worrying about the scoreboard and just worry about the performance.”