I don’t think we played badly but didn’t seem to have a clue how to score
We need a magician instead of a coach.Not sure what the point is,anymore.
We didn’t defend particularly well either given Halifax scored 32 points despite having had very little possession in the first half. Not much to be positive about tonight. Just hope we can strengthen the squad sufficiently to be a lot higher up the table in 2023.
What I feared when we appointed Jon Kear- an incredibly blunt attacking side.
Smith and Craven don’t work together. No coincidence last years run of form came with Smith at 13.
Why he picked Brown at 9 is beyond me. Some of his distribution was woeful.
Shame as if felt like a decent crowd tonight.
We had our chances tonight but couldn’t take them. Halifax were fitter and much faster than us.
And once again, the need for a couple of big, tough forwards to score under/near the posts was really obvious, to me at least.
We seem to have lost the surprise factor in attack and we are predictable. The short kick behind the line would have kept them dropping out but, we persisted with the same ideas.
JK seemed to hint at signings already made, but no details yet. Our left side defence was woeful in the first half. Roberts is off to Leeds, probably doesn't want to get hurt! Big forwards still murder us.
Hey Ho, off to Bradford and maybe hear some good news!!
Very disappointing evening.
Agree that the HB combo was poor....a recurring theme.
We had a lot of possession but not a lot of edge in attack.
Think the pattern to emerge is the squad is inadequate regardless of the coach.
Jk has by and large made us a bit more structured and resilient but frankly the players have been poor for him, SF and ROB.
As like the majority on this board, will be there next year, but surely we can't get any worse!!!
I think it’s got to change dramatically next season or we will lose the crowd and more of the budget
@mckeeverviking
Persuading anyone to splash out on a ST is going to be hard for most clubs in the present financial climate imo, and that isn't anything to do with RL!!!
We will probably have to go backwards, to a hard, grinding, defensive game before we can get back to be an attacking force. That is where Fax have been, but they are a few years ahead of us. Maybe we need an attack coach to work on that?
Let's face it, most of us could tell you what our attack sequence will be with our present personnel. That leaves someone like Grix with an easy job. We will have to sign and/or change for a more inventive game.
Fax we’re not that much better than us, they took their chances and we bombed ours, should have taken the 2 points on offer on several occasions to tighten the game up
still lack creativity - is that smiths last game at lower house lane ?
- is that smiths last game at lower house lane ?
We know he’s been a very good player and he did put in plenty of effort last night …. but yes, the magic has gone and he needs to move on.
Unless we can ship out eight ordinaries and replace them with eight players of quality,which isn't going to happen,then expect more of the same in 2023.
Usual response on here when we lose, players aren't good enough etc. They seem to be good enough when we win though.
I actually thought we did a lot of decent stuff last night, we were very good at building pressure, especially with our kicking game (2 40/20's and multiple drop outs from Fax). Our big problem was attacking in their 20, we struggled to create space and break them. Although, opportunities were there but our skill was very poor so we couldn't execute.
Owens was way off last night, didn't look fit and struggled for large parts of the game. I'd have brought him off and moved Fleming to FB. Agree with Brown at 9, hopefully that never happens again.
We certainly need a more balanced squad next year, we've struggled at 9 this year when Fozard needs a rest. Lawton is not a middle and is much more effective running out wide, which is where he scored all those tries at the start of the season.
We kept chipping away last night despite having very little to play for in the league. As Kear said earlier in the week, lets get this last game out the way and then the hard work starts for next year - this club should be competing at the top end of this league and we haven't since we came down.
Agree with much of that vm! Lawton is an enigma tbh, he isn't a prop in his head but he is a problem running good lines out wide. He needs someone to work on his game. Jack wasn't match fit and very frustrated by that I suspect.
Their pack was very bitchy, as if they were looking for a fight!
Someone mentioned that we looked better with Matty Smith at LF and he used Lawton and Jack better last year! The Smith/Craven pairing doesn't click for some reason.
JK mentioned a point regarding us looking to pass when the line was open and it looked just like that on the TV. Brown looked as far off match-ready as Jacko tbh. some atrocious passes from HB.
Time to re-group and start again.