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!!
Fev fan viewpoint. What a tense game. We turned in arguably our worst performance of the season, but credit to Widnes for doing plenty to force that poor performance, after the first 15 minutes there was bags of tenacity from your guys and we lacked the creativity to break you down. The game could easily have gone the other way had you been a bit steadier when presneted with chance sin the second half.
Thought Spedding and Farnworth were very good for you. I've seen Spedding plenty of times over the years when we've played Sheffield and Barrow and never really rated him but he was excellent yesterday, it helped that right hand side of your attack that we had Halton, who is a middle/back row, at centre (replaced by a hooker when Halton went off injured) and a centre (Hardcastle) on the wing, but Spedding still played really well. He had a trial with us at the end of 2019 but never got a game in the first team and maybe had a bit to prove.
The other key thing is that I thought your bench went much better than ours. I think you have found out yourselves how important that is and Clough and Farnworth were great whereas none of our lads off the bench played especially well. When we have Kopczak, Lockwood, Harrison and Bussey as our 4 middles we look a different team as we don't lose anything when the interchanges are made, whereas Davies (who is better on the edge imo), Cooper and Field are all a bit undersized.
Lawton is an enigma, from a Fev point of view his two tries were desperately weak defence but he's so big he takes a bit of stopping. We did target him and Lyons in defence with a bit of success but he certainly made an impact on the game.
As James says above the comments about the ref are laughable, Fev did get one or two 50-50 calls and there was one knock on called by the tough judge in the first half against Widnes that I thought was the wrong call, but I think there weren't many other blatantly wrong decisions. We too have numerous fans on our forums/FB pages who are convinced "the RFL don't want us to win" etc, it doesn't half get tedious.
I was really disappointed with our lack of creativity, Parata who has been brilliant for us all season had a shocker, we badly missed the spark that Chisholm can bring and also the way Bussey links between the backs and forwards. You did a good job on Gaz Gale who has been very difficult for Championship defences to handle this season.
Anyway, a nail biting game and wouldn't surprise me if we meet again in the play offs.
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.
Wouldn't work for me either, wasn't in the list of games in the Match Centre.
@sunny, any tips?
The ref thing does matter though, Fev were given possession for a long early period, some were genuine but not all.
In front of the camera Junior Moors(?) tried to off load and lost it. Penalty against the tackler, Craven, and another six. Small thing maybe, but it gave them more possession. There were other instances of course, many were on camera and commented on!
Anyway, onward and upwards. In all honesty we aren't ready for another diversion, concentrate on the league and getting some consistency into our game and we will be worth watching.
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.
Is he? Or is just not big enough?
Lawton is the weak link in right edge defence. Teams target him game after game. Partly due to trying to take energy out of him, but mainly because his attitude to defend isn't good enough.
I think individually and collectively the combination of Lawton, Lyons and Spedding is defensively weaker than that of Grady, Craven and Tyrer on the other side of the pitch. And therefore we tend to be vulnerable down that side. On the flipside that combination is going well in attack now.
The ref thing does matter though, Fev were given possession for a long early period, some were genuine but not all. In front of the camera Junior Moors(?) tried to off load and lost it. Penalty against the tackler, Craven, and another six. Small thing maybe, but it gave them more possession. There were other instances of course, many were on camera and commented on! Anyway, onward and upwards. In all honesty we aren’t ready for another diversion, concentrate on the league and getting some consistency into our game and we will be worth watching.
This. Thaler gifted them at least 4 extra sets. That said, I thought we coped well, apart from that first 10/15 mins as they trundled down the hill. If we had had the good fortune not to concede on the half time hooter, then I think that would have been game to us. Small margins in cup rugby.
All us fans want is effort and toil. Then we can live with losing, now and again.
Paulie xx