Re: Swinton game : Mon Feb 06, 2017 12:50 pm  

Nothing obvious, Junior's second spell was very late on but that may be tactical to get him against a tiring defence rather than a niggle. William Barthau took a knock but seemed to shake it off.

A few other thoughts, Swinton were very impressive and are on the way up both on and off the pitch. It's a good job their kicker was kicking from his 'wrong' side most times.
A few of their players seem worth a look for next season if we stay down. 2 and 7 for starters.

London deserve credit for hanging on in their and finding a way to win the game. This would have been a defeat a couple of years ago. The players certainly weren't shirking.

When it did click London looked decent going forward, especially when moving the ball across and stretching Swinton, something I thought they should have done more. The defence certainly wasn't up to scratch at points.

Keiran needs a good game or two to get his confidence levels up. Playing his ex employers who know his game well next up may not be ideal. I'm confident he'll come good at this level.

Another northern friendly or two may be a plan in future to help the new signings settle in to the challenges the match day routine imposes. Financially it's difficult to argue with travelling on the day sadly.

Re: Swinton game : Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:23 am  

brian2 wrote:

totally agree

Dixon will always be a bit of a problem defensively, but he adds a lot going forward so its about trying to make sure he doesnt get isolated and working on high balls etc in training

did we pick up any injuroes?

The problem with that is Dixon is flawless under the high ball in training and the warm up, I think the best thing to do is give him more support from the centre and fullback where possible.

I for one like Dixon and was in the minority that wanted to keep him at rovers (although he was on a massive wage apparently) if he's used correctly the amount of tries he'll score will far outweigh the ones he gives away, sometimes you just have to shrug and say ah well that's Dixon and get on with it, something a lot of our supporters just couldn't accept

Re: Swinton game : Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:30 am  

Maybe he is like a lot of the northern lads and misses his mummy and had to come home to be close to the apron strings

Re: Swinton game : Tue Feb 07, 2017 11:02 am  

I think it is something like that.

Re: Swinton game : Tue Feb 07, 2017 11:17 am  

Bit of both I think. KR released him but once released he was keen to head south. From memory he openly stated he wanted to be nearer his young child, based down south. Totally understandable.

We've got a few decent backs now, it shouldn't be too difficult to give him the required cover. If he gets his confidence up to a reasonable level he'll be an asset at this level. He's seemingly mentally strong, fighting back from being released at 16, a potential career ending injury and Wembley already. I'll be surprised if he isn't in the running for player of the year.....

Re: Swinton game : Tue Feb 07, 2017 11:55 am  

sandy wrote:

The problem with that is Dixon is flawless under the high ball in training and the warm up, I think the best thing to do is give him more support from the centre and fullback where possible.

I for one like Dixon and was in the minority that wanted to keep him at rovers (although he was on a massive wage apparently) if he's used correctly the amount of tries he'll score will far outweigh the ones he gives away, sometimes you just have to shrug and say ah well that's Dixon and get on with it, something a lot of our supporters just couldn't accept

Kear is excellent under the high ball and Williams not bad either and this is the problem...teams will always avoid kicking to Kear if they can and target Dixon. A lot of games this season will be close affairs and defence can be the difference between wining and losing. Dixon has improved and needs to continue this improvement. Hendo will have no mercy picking somebody else if not.

Re: Swinton game : Tue Feb 07, 2017 3:32 pm  

Dixon's tryscoring will far outweigh anything he gives away.

Re: Swinton game : Tue Feb 07, 2017 10:52 pm  

Rob from Erith wrote:

Dixon's tryscoring will far outweigh anything he gives away.

Exactly my point

Re: Swinton game : Wed Feb 08, 2017 5:59 am  

Over a season that is likely. The concern is the tight games against the better teams when he will be the go to player, that could cost us the crucial 2 points or MPG.......

Re: Swinton game : Thu Feb 09, 2017 9:54 am  

How did our former player Purtell, Pitts and Sammut play for you? In my opinion you have got a couple of cracking players in Pitts and Sammut! Purtell is a bit slow though now a days.