HEMEL chairman Bob Brown hopes the tight surroundings will work in their favour when the Bulls break new ground in Hertfordshire on Sunday.

Their modest Pennine Way home is braced for a record crowd to see John Kear’s side.

A four-figure attendance is anticipated – smashing the previous best of 480 against London Skolars.

The Stags have lost all 10 league games so far but Brown feels the Bulls are in for a culture shock.

He said: “We’ve got a community ground upgraded to League One standard, as opposed to lots of clubs who play in big stadiums not appropriate for this league.

“Most of the crowd will be on the spectator barriers very close to the action. You can hear the thump on the field.”

Hemel were thrashed 90-0 at York on Sunday after losing 74-6 to Oldham. Brown admits they are paying a heavy price for individual errors.

“We’ve been competitive in most of our games this season until the last two,” he added.

“We matched Oldham for the first 20 minutes and then self-destructed. But we get punished by better teams.

“If you make a mistake, drop a ball, they will sweep it up and clear off down the field with it. That’s our problem.

“Defensively we are a good team but most of the tries against us last week were from individual mistakes or gifted, not through terrific rugby from York.

“It’s pretty frustrating because they aren’t bad players. It’s just when things aren’t going our way and they have to focus their minds.

“Players have got to learn to overcome that. Hopefully this Sunday, with a decent crowd in a tight little ground and big occasion, our guys will be on their toes.

“We need to get stuck in against Bradford like Newcastle did. They’ve been a bit hot and cold this season but probably responded to the environment last Friday night and we have to do the same.”

It will be the Bulls’ first visit to Pennine Way and the game has been made all-ticket to meet the expected demand. Brown sees the historic meeting as an opportunity to spread the word locally about the 13-man code.

He said: “When the Challenge Cup used to be unseeded, you hoped to draw the Bradfords or Wigans of the league.

“There’s no chance of playing the big teams with the way it’s set up now. So, it’s terrific that we have the Bulls coming here.

“The bottom line is we hope a lot of Bradford people come down and we also want to attract a new audience from our own catchment area.

“We have done a lot of work off the field to lay on different entertainment and hope that it will be a good day-out. Whatever the score, we want people to enjoy it and want to come back.

“The extra revenue is always very important but it’s more the marketing side of the game.

“Rugby league is a great television sport but it’s even better when you’re stood three metres from the action and you can really see the courage and integrity of the players.”