Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 12:50 pm  

Good to see some sensible posts from opposition fans.

Ok where do I start. Silverwood had a poor game, some of his decisions left me absolutely baffled. How did you manage to adjudge the Salford player (at the end of the first half) had obstructed an on rushing Widnes defender when he was facing his own sticks and had his back to them? If you're penalising for that, you could spend half the game giving penalities. How many times was he going to allow Theo Fages to receive a high tackle? The worst for me though was their final try, Phil Joseph appeared tackled and then Kevin Brown didnt look to get the ball down. If they did fair enough, but why didnt he go to the video screen? He did for Theo's try.

Stuart Howarth and Danny Williams both not Super League players in a month of Sunday's. I dont care how hard they try and the effort they put in, their both just not good enough. Williams I accept is in the squad due to injuries, yet Howarth is appearing to become a regular in the 17. Why we loaned Gareth Owen out and kept this lad on I'll never know.

Greg Johnson, Harrison Hansen, Theo Fages and Jason Walton were all outstanding.

Our defence is concerning me. We've got some great individual defenders, yet as a unit we're still a long way from where we need to be. I understand this will come with time.

Attacking wise we were predictable and boring. It was only when Theo began to play off the cuff (which he should always be doing - let Smith do the organising) that we started breaking the Widnes line. To many times the players around Smith didnt know what they were doing and we either dropped the ball, took it flat or Smith ended up getting wrapped by Widnes. Again, I think it's a time issue and the longer we give it the better it will become. Lets not forget Rangi is a crucial part the machine we worked hard on in training.

Widnes were decent, but that's it. I was impressed with their effort but they just do the basics right. I still felt we were the better team last night (even with our injuries) but I hope they push for a top 8 spot.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 12:51 pm  

[quote="Red-Devils-PAW"]

We managed to lose all the second halfs last year when Stu Howarth was not around to be the scapegoat.

Are you suggesting howarth played well last night? Did you not notice the improved performance when he went off?

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:29 pm  

If Chase was fit for next week, who would you drop Fages or Smith?

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:30 pm  

St pete wrote:

Strange comment. I was under the impression that the salary cap was there to introduce level playing field as well as stopping clubs going bust.

Saints ain't the team campaigning to abolish the cap and introduce marquee player rules. We believe the future of the game is to Develop youth not to sign 17 superstars from all over the world.


We also didn't vote to scrap the u21s to save £30k a year like Salford.

The salary cap is a good thing, you will find no arguments with me on that one. However, it has not been reviewed for around eight years and a number of clubs, yourselves included, would be able to work under a higher cap without putting the clubs at risk. Also, it's all well and good developing youth, however a few years down the line some of that youth will the talented superstars of the day. Do you carry on offering them less money than they can get elsewhere and bank on loyalty, watching a slow drip of talent moving to Union where they can earn more cash, or do you look at ways of keeping that talent in the game without putting the clubs in financial risk? Whether the marquee signing is the way to go, or whether there's another way around it, is up for sensible discussion and hopefully the clubs will discuss it sensibly. Dismissing it so bluntly gets us nowhere.

As for the U21s, I think it should have been kept as well, but I do wonder if you've used it as a rod against any other club, or if it's just convenient to use in your blind rage and hatred towards Koukash.

Red-Devils-PAW wrote:

We managed to lose all the second halfs last year when Stu Howarth was not around to be the scapegoat.

Nowt to do with him being a scapegoat, he just really isn't good enough.

John Gilbert Reds wrote:

I still felt we were the better team last night

We really, really weren't.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:34 pm  

Dave K. wrote:

If Chase was fit for next week, who would you drop Fages or Smith?

Good question. I would still stick with Smith though. Most of what we've worked on in pre-season would have involved both Smith and Chase and whilst Theo was excellent, I would demote him to the bench in place of the untouchable Howarth.

[quote="GT]We really, really weren't.[/quote]

I disagree.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:41 pm  

John Gilbert Reds wrote:

I disagree.

Nothing going forward, defensively poor and loads of mistakes. Widnes looked a threat every time they attacked our line (aided by our poor defence), looked solid and well organised at the back and kept mistakes to a minimum. We also looked absolutely knackered at the end, whilst Widnes' fitness seemed quite good.

Either way, I guess it's not that important, however good we were, we just weren't good enough.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 1:42 pm  

John Gilbert Reds wrote:

Good question. I would still stick with Smith though. Most of what we've worked on in pre-season would have involved both Smith and Chase and whilst Theo was excellent, I would demote him to the bench in place of the untouchable Howarth.

I disagree.

Has Fages got the defensive skills to play 9? I understand what you are saying about Chase/Smith, but Smith must up his game or he might lose his place.

Personally I wouldn't have signed Smith and gone with Sneyd, Chase and Fages.

On the other point I thought it was an even game with Widnes taking here chances more, they had more class 1,6 and 7.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 2:17 pm  

Couple of observations from a Wire fan (with a soft spot for Salford):

1 - defence from dummy half wasn't great - watch a rerun of Hanbury's try... incredibly weak ruck defence. Real schoolboy stuff.

2 - Widnes were clearly better at the tackle area. They have been doing a lot of work with a pro UFC/MMA guy (i forget his name) and they were far better at wrestling the ball carrier onto his back/controlling the speed of the PTB. Salford should take note.

3 - Up until Salford collapsed at around 60/65 mins, it was a great game to watch. Really enjoyed the 1st half.

4 - For once, Stevo was probaby correct when bleating on about a '1 pointer' on the 40 min mark. That would have pushed it to a 8-13 with Salford getting the ball back. Instead, they ended up deep in their half, and gave away a stupid penalty.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 3:36 pm  

Well said Celt - up to 65 minutes I was thoroughly enjoying it, things were starting to look a lot better than the previous two games I'd seen (missed London away).
Getting turned over like that in the last 15 minutes was a real disappointment (and if that last Widnes try was grounded I'll bare my bum in Burton's window) - but I reckon Nobby has positives to build on and we are definitely going forwards not backwards.

Re: Widnes on thursday : Fri Mar 07, 2014 3:47 pm  

Enjoyed the game loved the Dr Who music at the end . .