Halifax 12 Bradford & Bingley 10

Bradford & Bingley could have emerged from a third straight National League Two defeat feeling sorry for themselves.

However, the mood in the camp after the game was very positive.

New signing Hese Fakatou, a Tongan international, summed it up when he said: "Rome wasn't built in a day.

"We are a new side coming together and we will get there. We will be a good side - next week we will be a different side again."

Fakatou's comments echoed the sentiment of Bees' head coach Geoff Wappett, who said before the game that this local derby could be a turning point for his side and could be the catalyst in the Bees emerging as a real force in National Two.

The Bees are indeed not far from being a decent side.

Newcomers Fakatou, Sam Newton and Victor Oniyeki-Frampton all looked to be decent additions to the Bees line-up, and the return from injury of open-side flanker Neil Spence added a whole new dimension to the visitors on the floor and around the fringes.

Overall, however, this was not a game that either side will care to remember as both sides dropped passes and turned over the ball with a frequency you would not expect at schoolboy level.

The generally untidy nature of the game was further compounded by some eccentric refereeing.

The officials saw nothing wrong in a head-high challenge that completely pole-axed Bees winger Joe Simpson, yet managed to yellow card two Bees players for technical infringements in the next two passages of play.

There was at least some balance to the yellow-card decisions as two Halifax players spent time in the cooler late in the second half.

All the home side's points came from the boot of centre Manupenu, who landed four penalties - three in the first half and a final three-pointer just after half-time.

The Bees landed one penalty through skipper Tom Rhodes in the 35th minute to leave the half-time score at 9-3, although the home side will probably feel that their fly half Tom Eaton should have done rather better with a chance as he burst through the visitors' defence and chose to fling a pass out to his right, which was hauled in by the Bees' Peter Sutcliffe, with the line at his mercy.

The only memorable moment of the game was the Bees score in the 63rd minute when a pinpoint kick to the corner from Rhodes was retrieved by Sutcliffe, who flicked the ball inside to the supporting Benny Greaves to dot down to the left of the posts.

Although Rhodes had three chances to claim the game with penalties in the final ten minutes as they laid seige to the home line, the usually accuracy of the No 10's right leg somehow deserted him.