I’ve never been sold on Jake spedding but today I thought he was excellent. Really stepped up
first part up, more to follow, if u want to check out parts of the game
Give over Erik - Wouldnt matter if he lived in a house on Post Office Road Mr Thaler is not bent. We lost it ourselves. No excuses. Well played lads.
Widnes are despised by the RFL, and it shows every time I watch us play in Yorkshire….even our great sides in the 70’s and 80’s got nothing off the officials, which makes our success over these periods all the more incredible. As you will see from Mr THALER’s Twitter account, he had admiration from a former referee, Mr WH THOMPSON – and we all know what he did to the Widnes sides of the 70’s and 80’s on the pitch……exactly the same thing as THALER did today.
Been a myth for a long time this and that's all it is, a myth.
We lost the game through a terrible 10 mins and not taking 2 walk ins
However the first half Thaler treated the game like a SL standard and it isn’t. Should of been a champ ref for 2 champ teams. Never been a fan of Thaler as a ref in general for any team always likes to make it about him
Think the pen ahead of their 1st try was dubious, never been a fan of him as a ref, he was rubbish years ago when we were in the Champo and he hasn't improved.
That being said, we were too easy to get through in the first quarter.
Many more positives to take though, which is more than can be said for many previous away trips!
A very good effort from everyone today and we all seem to agree that, despite playing well, we let ourselves down when it mattered.
However, I’m continually baffled by people who can’t/won’t believe that, just as there are good and not so good players, that rule does not apply to referees. Thaler is, and was today, one sided.
We lost the game through a terrible 10 mins and not taking 2 walk ins However the first half Thaler treated the game like a SL standard and it isn’t. Should of been a champ ref for 2 champ teams. Never been a fan of Thaler as a ref in general for any team always likes to make it about him
Their moments or good pieces of place came through those tries you mention, what I took from the game was how unfit our forwards are. I know I am just repeating the commentator but there is no reason why our forwards should look as poorly conditioned as they are.
Clough is good for me, I like Farnworths’ ‘not a care in the world’ attitude to running it in and tackling.
I thought Cook was good last week Vs Whitehaven but disappointing in every other game he’s been involved in including today.
Ourleague won’t let me in, Radio merseyside isn’t talking – Help please!!!! Is it just me?
I rang my pal Ralph Wiggum who talked me through the set-up - thanks Ralph.
Saw the game from just before their third try, see that Bent Haler hasn't improved. Even without the Grady/Cook cock-ups we really ought to have won.
Can't understand why the tackle on Farnworth wasn't at least put on report.
Lawton must be the most improved player in the squad at present.
Regarding Cook, doesn't his poor reliabilty make Doro, or someone fitter, a neccesity? Others seem to find worthwhile signings from somewhere and today's showing says that we could do something this year provided we can stand a couple of injuries.
We do need another forward or two. Not many out injured today and yet all the remaining players in the squad who didn’t make the 17 were outside backs.
Regarding Cook, doesn’t his poor reliabilty make Doro, or someone fitter, a neccesity? Others seem to find worthwhile signings from somewhere and today’s showing says that we could do something this year provided we can stand a couple of injuries.
I said that earlier in weeks SG - will we be getting Doro back? He was signed for the season but we all know that relations with our noisy neighbours aren’t great after the Robson move away???
The ref comments are laughable. We were probably on the wrong side of some 50/50s at times, but I'm sure Fev could say the same.
We only used 16 players as Else didn't come on. Surprised he didn't get a run for Lyons late on to add a bit of freshness. Unfortunately, Lyons is a weak link and was targeted in defence. In fairness, we did a really good job of shoring things up as it could have got ugly.
Put Tomkins in that team for Else, shift O'Neill to loose, Smith to half-back and we'd have a chance of beating anybody (except maybe Toulouse).
Spedding was excellent I thought. Defended much better than he has previously, has got pace, and looked a threat whenever he got the ball.
We had chances to win, but not too disheartened to miss out. It was just a really good team performance, save for a crazy 10 minute spell. If you lost games like that every week, you wouldn't mind. It gives a yardstick for moving forward, and even in defeat, continues a bit of the momentum built from last week ahead of two crucial home games which are both must-wins for me.
Not saying that he is Bent, although he is only a single letter in his forename off being so, so we may draw our own conclusions! It is not about that, it is about controlling a game where points come off decisions which can be given either way, consistently or inconsistently, but more importantly the recurring nature of his performances when Widnes are involved. We had two sets of 6 in the first 15 minutes or so, and I urge you to look at the game on review with this in mind. This is where the game was lost in the final analysis, despite the fact that we had the 2 glorious chances, and then the half chances of the LYONS knock on from Lawton's pass and SPEDDING and CROSS' mix up on the right. That is how dominant we were in terms of guilt-edged chances. Had we have had the ball which the ref gave Fev, we would have won it. Just check the extra sets of six and set restarts which confirm this........
Having said that, the game is gone now and we must celebrate the improvement of the performances in the last 4 weeks - the team is getting somewhere where it needs to be now....meanwhile, I will wait for the day (home or away) when we get as much off a ref as Fev got today!!