Craven starts
Not at the races today even with a win.
I listened on the radio and it sounded like we fell asleep after going 18-6 up
give credit to cougars for making a comeback but couldn’t get ahead
Interested to hear player ratings from the guys who made it to the match
Granted we had players out, but I wasn’t impressed with that.
Scoring when we’re on their line remains a concern. We had 4/5 sets there in the first half and didn’t look like scoring.
Defence looked a bit shaky in midfield. Did all of their tries come from 30+ out?
Massive improvement if we’re to beat Bradford
I'd say it was a fairly solid but unspectacular (Millar's finishing being the exception!) display with a few defensive lapses in midfield areas which cost us and made it closer than it should have been. Goal line defence was actually OK and we didn't seem to have to do that much of it overall. However, the last 10 minutes were very dominant, led brilliantly by Amor with Walker shining as well. What a difference having two top quality props steaming it in and making good hits late on made, set the platform for the pressure which lead to the tries. Yeah, so not fantastic, but a wins a win and Keighley do have some decent players, but I think the pre-season hype about them may have been a bit mis-placed.
Having seen the Fev score last week I expected an easy game and I suspect our players did as well! Unfortunately, Keighley weren’t given that script and put in a tough performance - their coach may well be happier than ours tonight!
With no JJ, Gilmore, Lawton or Farnworth, there was a bit of a change from last week, though we should still have done better today. We let ourselves get caught out in the defensive line several times, conceding tries that put them in the game. As expected Gale was involved in several of their set plays that led to these tries and we might have been smarter to anticipate that.
Overall, discipline was good and had the ref not had a turn in his eye then he might have given as many in our favour as went against! As at York, both wingers were in great form doing a job on the wings as well as taking kicks well and making some strong runs to help out in the middle, as did both centres who are both giving us solid outside pairings.
Good result, but there were several sighs of relief in the stands when we scored that last try!
A win is a win but that wasn't a good game today. The best tries were the two scored by Keighley, ie making a break, running hard with players backing up.
And, I can't believe that a coach like JK is happy for our players to hang onto the ball near their line when we could score by moving the ball - it's called passing!
On the plus side, both of our wingers, plus Davies, Fleming and Grady played well. However, after a few very good carries from Walker he quickly ran out of steam.
I thought we started really well and should have been more than 6-0 up.
Defence for all 3 of the Keighley tries was not the best, but then again we generally limited Chisholm and Gale.
Not convinced the Lyons Craven partnership will lead to Top 6.
JJ missed as a genuine 9 to rotate with Fozard, although Brown did fine when he came on.
We do have 2 pacy wingers and I think that makes a pleasant attacking threat.
All 4 of our props were solid and that will only continue to improve with Farnworth coming back.
We will lose at Bradford if we have the lapses we had at time today, but it seemed like a good crowd and a win is always positive.
Well it shows we miss Lawton, Gilmore, Farnworth and Jordan Johnstone from the side. Gilmore the organiser, Farnworth for more hard graft down the middle, Lawton for tries and big danger man. Johnstone for his speed and guile. So it is important to replace Gilmore to be a stronger side, but overall doing okay. 🥖🥖
To be fair, both Barrow and Batley who finished well above us last year lost at home today so maybe we should feel a tad more upbeat in retrospect.
Anyone know the attendance. Seemed a decent crowd, 3000+?
If Gillmore is out for most of the season we need to try and bring in a dominant half is possible,Craven and Lyons just don’t instill confidence going forward,The injuries over the years seem to have caught up with Danny sadly.
We weren’t brilliant today, but I thought we were by far the better side in the first half and should have been further ahead than we were. We went to sleep for Gales try and then 2 dubious penalties on the bounce put them pressurising us and scoring again, instead of defending their own line.
It will make a big difference if Lawton and Farnworth are available to play at Bradford, because we will be able to rest Amor and Walker, without it weakening us like it did today when they went off.
I would consider giving the goal kicking duties to either Dixon or Edge, who both kicked very well in our preseason friendlies, rather than Owens, who seems to struggle with kicks from wide out. The missed kicks could have cost us the match today.