ROOKIE hooker Kevin Eadie scored two minutes from time to hand new boss Danny Evans' a perfect start to his head coaching career.
It was no more than Featherstone deserved after outscoring the Bulldogs five tries to three in a rugged contest between the teams second and third bottom of Co-operative National League One.


Rovers, who climb out of the bottom two, looked to have blown in after leaking tries either side of the interval to trail 18-10.
But rugged defence in the final half-hour, allied to some clever play from halves Andy Kain and Paul Handforth, inspired Featherstone's first away win in the league this season.
Scrum-half Handforth fired the comeback by putting centre Andy Kirk through a hole on 56 minutes.


It was the prelude to a strong spell from the home side, who forced successive drop-outs, but the Rovers line held and 13 minutes from time James Houston and Kain combined to free Lee Lingard and the winger made no mistake with an unstoppable 40-metre charge to the whitewash.
Dickens could not convert, however, and Evans will have been concerned with the way his side invited more late pressure, conceding three successive penalties and coughing up ball with a forward pass.


But Francis Maloney's sliced drop-goal was as close as the Bulldogs got and on 78 minutes ex-Wakefield and Castleford utility Handforth improvised to set up Eadie's match-winner.
He shaped to attempt a drop-goal but instead chipped over the top, twice hacked on and as the ball rolled into the in-goal area Eadie was on his shoulder to touchdown. Dickens' second goal left Batley no way back.


The Bulldogs had opened the scoring with a Kevin King penalty on 11 minutes, although they should have posted a try before the halfway mark.
Winger Jermaine McGilivray would have scored had Ian Preece's pass not been wild and then Handforth slid in to deny Maloney off the Bulldogs' playmaker's own grubber kick.
Full-back Loz Wildbore burst through to open Rovers' account, a try improved by Dickens, and Evans' men should have scored again minutes later following Tommy Saxton's 40-metre burst but when the ball went forward off a Batley hand, the onrushing Richard Blakeway knocked-on in the act of scooping up the loose ball.


Maloney's 40-20 set up position for Batley to level as Maloney burrowed his way over from dummy-half.
Four minutes from time the hard-running Wildbore did superbly to score his second try. There was nothing on when he took Handforth's pass but fended off at least three tackles to crash over.
It was a lead Rovers should have taken into the sheds but just a minute before the break they were caught out from the scrum base when Paul Mennell's kick on the first tackle opened the door for Preece to score. King goaled.


After Sean Hesketh wiped out Byron Smith in a crunching hit Featherstone tried the same tactic but Olly Marns got back to kick dead as Kain closed in.
Five minutes into the second half home substitute Ashley Lindsay darted through a retreating defence for Batley's third try, again goaled by King, and it took a big tackle from Wildbore on Jon Simpson to deny the home side what could have proved a match-clinching score.


But Rovers dug deep to find a cutting edge in the closing stages and while their decision-making at times was something Evans will look to improve, there was no shortage of effort, with the fit-again Field and skipper Dickens leading the way.