: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:35 am  

You must NOT say nice things about the opposition.

Someone gets upset if you do!

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 9:43 am  

No problems our bunch of merry supporters.

A good typical cup win, which a season ago we'd have thrown away completely. I enjoyed it and hope those few who were their did
I agree we gifted game to them time aftert time and a 15 min spell in 2nd half had me chewing my tassels.
But hey its a game and things happen .
But agree with Reborn and Cherry both and the rest of you are not daft .

Lowe like Knighty last season has been a bit of a liability for some time and hes getting worse. ( Before anybody starts i am not singling him out but 4 ripped balls lost , 4 dropped balls in tackle and 6 missed tackles- watch the VIDEO and any number or crabs across field resulting in NO gain yards does not constitute PROP play and i know its not his position)
At times he has to roll himself upright after the tackle , thats a tired lad and ive never seen commitment .

Baz obviously does not agree and hes using him in key roles for lengthy spells , hes our Coach and he must know better.
Anyone who wants to take issue can message me, not abuse me.

Otherwise as you say we have a team of lads who now can roll up their sleeves and remedy persistant ball loss and stupidity. ( at one stage 2 nd half we defended a continuous 4 sets before Pia boobed and lost the ball ) WE only completed 3 sets of 6 in whole of the half.
That is bloody hard almost suicidal hard work. If we increased our ball retention by just 30% wed concede probably 12-16 less points per game and thats both Championship play and would have got us into Rail Cup 2 nd round.

Thats all thats happening otherwise we have a good game , our defense is solid and we can be an exciting go forward credit to Rugby League.
At both Blackpool and Barrow we were exactly the same and they both beat us and they are C0-Op League not French -- the tale is cautionary.

Helen , Petes pies were excellent especially when HOT but by 2nd half theyd gone a bit cold , no way of reheating or heating another batch at Half time is there ?.
Never found the bottle beer bar where was it again. But the bar was so empty had my 5 pints inside, (a bit of money youd not normally get ) , watching the Man Utd match was a BONUS.
But dont give up on the idea on a hot Summer afternoon (which is coming) a beer outside which is accessible will be a |Godsend.

Is the Club taking the lads to Italy for a training camp next weekend?
To warm up for the OLDHAM match which could be a Championship decider, providing Dewsbury and York dont spoil it.
One final note , Thank God we dont play saturday night every week , or even have evening KO's they are a Killer, didnt get home till 11. 40pm knackered.

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 1:43 pm  

Dont agree with level of criticism of Lowe even though he made a few errors he was not alone in this, I think personaly he is one of our most creative forwards on his day. Thats not meant to offend just my take on him.

But I think the overall performance showed the team spirit is there for all to see because we really dug in when it mattered.

One quick point on the referee I thought he leaned heavily towards Pia on the 50-50 calls plus those he seemed to make up as he went along.

: Sun Mar 08, 2009 2:49 pm  

Lost my cherry u seen it? wrote:

Dont agree with level of criticism of Lowe even though he made a few errors he was not alone in this, I think personaly he is one of our most creative forwards on his day. Thats not meant to offend just my take on him.

But I think the overall performance showed the team spirit is there for all to see because we really dug in when it mattered.

One quick point on the referee I thought he leaned heavily towards Pia on the 50-50 calls plus those he seemed to make up as he went along.

My frustration with Lowe is that he clearly has potential but seems hell bent on throwing it away. How many young lads would like the opourtunities open to him, how many would be first to training and last to leave when given the chance. Yet Lowe is puffing after 10 mins, on his knees after 20 and stationary after 30 mins and inbetween running into forwards with the ball loosely held between his forearm and bicep.

It can not be good for team spriit to see someone so unfit picked every week just because they play for a neither here nor there national team with Scotland.

If he applied himself I guess we would lose him to SL, but from what I have seen, i.e. 3 months into the year and he is still unfit, I doubt we have to worry about a SL team pinching him.

: Mon Mar 09, 2009 9:41 am  

I came across to the game as a neutral, and thought it was a cracking game. The last I saw of the Cougars was the friendly when they played our lot at The Shay and they have improved no end. I really do hope you have a successful season

: Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:54 pm  

If Lowe was played out wider he is the most destructive player in the team as he can get arms free to slip the ball to the quicker players supporting. He is made to look bad sometimes because there is no one on his shoulder and the opposition can then get in and dislodge the ball. The fitness issue maybe because he is being asked to do the wrong kind of work. Take the rough with the smooth, if you don't take some chances you end up watching a pretty boring team. I seem to remember watching somebody getting a man of the match on Saturday night who threw some horrendous passes out but thankfully got away with it.

: Mon Mar 09, 2009 6:13 pm  

avebullswon wrote:

If Lowe was played out wider he is the most destructive player in the team as he can get arms free to slip the ball to the quicker players supporting. He is made to look bad sometimes because there is no one on his shoulder and the opposition can then get in and dislodge the ball. The fitness issue maybe because he is being asked to do the wrong kind of work. Take the rough with the smooth, if you don't take some chances you end up watching a pretty boring team. I seem to remember watching somebody getting a man of the match on Saturday night who threw some horrendous passes out but thankfully got away with it.

I agree he is out of position but as a 'superstar' he should be able to do that more than most. But he can not. For 15-20 minutes he can run the wing, one hand offload while defending himself and we are away, but our game is 80 minutes and he needs to get fit. With the news of Shicks and Brown then stepping up a gear on the exercise bike is now, not mid season.

With regards no one being on his shoulder I think all the lads need to step up in support of each other, it is not just Lowe looking to off load to find no support.

At least we now have a new physio and given his experience I suspect any injuries on the field may take a day or two to resolve as everything becomes chilled man and we take it easy.

: Mon Mar 09, 2009 6:39 pm  

Cool it lads im sorry i even mentioned what was on my mind.

I am enjoying Cougars and have done for most of the last two seasons and have watched Baz develop and the team along with him.

It was pure frustration at seeing so much bad play from an experienced mature player that prompted my comments during my POST.
Sorry youve got involved Reborn , its just my personal view of Neil Lowe, and that comes from playing with lads like him and watching him over the last two seasons.. He's not suddenly become a lazy bugger.

But Its really about the lads having to spend so much time and effort defending through unessecary bad and stupid play and this often costs us points. and games, when we are better than the opposition.

Lets drop it now its really nowt to do with me or our Forum and again im sorry i brought my views to the board.

: Mon Mar 09, 2009 8:07 pm  

Quite right BexSnr. Lets talk about the positives and good play rather than dwell on the few bad bits.

I thought we mixed things up well, chucking it wide etc. Not a lot got through the middle and there were some good kicks showing Danny can do it. The wind I suspect made things look worse than they were kicking wise. So all in all, a win with some work to do.

Oldham will be tough though, it will take a real effort given our injuries to get through that encounter, but we are capable of doing so. Any chance of us getting Luke Sutton on Loan for that game.

: Mon Mar 09, 2009 10:33 pm  

You know looking at Oldham squad they have about 6 recognised PROPS on their books and 2-3 others that could play Prop.

So thats not a bad suggestion Reborn , but Gaz Sykes or even Menzies would be a better Loan prospect , they can play a bit and are match fit. as well as being able to, Prop and Hook and Sykes has played almost every position on the park.
They are also not first choice for Oldham at the moment though Sykes has been Hooking for them recently.