Not sure what to expect this week last two results both teams have been nilled and we seem to be getting some form.

Fev seem to have a long injury list but full time and seem to be winning easy along with been unbeaten.

will take a gamble and say fax 19 fev 18

That'll do!

Regarding"full time"...there are a few Fev players who don't have a job outside rugby, but most of them do...roofers, gas board, mechanic etc. The only full-time teams in our division are Toulouse and London, though Bradford also have a number of players who don't have a job outside RL.

You are right about the injury list though, Webster spoke about having "10 or 11" players unavailable for the Sheffield game...Blackmore, Ferres, Welham, Ferguson, Hardcastle, Harrison, Moors, Ferres, Cooper amongst the players missing yesterday and Jack Bussey, who has been outstanding lately, went off with what looked a bad injury in the second half. So with Fax seemingly going much better the game probably looks a lot more competitive than it did a couple of weeks ago.

Cant see any sort of win for fax over there but I feel to have lost the thread of rugby league after all this time .

thats some injury list phantom will they all be out for the fax game as for fax doing better its hard to tell it would be easy to say the early season problems have been sorted based on the last 2 games but i don't think we have been challenged down the middle of the park in those games like we were in the earlier defeats some of that is down to fax playing better but i think we really need to be tested in that area to find out for sure and that test should come and then some on sunday

you are not on your own there it would be easier to guess the lottery numbers sometimes

You have. It's over here.

We've been very good down the middle this year so far, in fact that has been our best area, but losing Harrison and now possibly Bussey is a big blow. Our pivots will challenge you though...Parata's been superb (albeit most of us think he hasn't been given enough minutes), Jones is lively and Holmes (especially), Brown and Chisholm, who is now playing full back, are all threats.

If we had most of our starters I'd still be very confident of a comfortable Fev win, but we are down to bare bones even with our large squad, albeit we can still field a lot of quality players. But who knows which version of Fax will turn up, I hope it's the one that lost to Oldham.

From what I've seen of Fev this year Phantom they are a cracking side across the park and look to be cruising most of the time, even when they have conceded they just go up another gear and the opposition can't stay with them and as you say have threats all over the park.
Never heard of Parata until this year but he has the X factor in spades, with players like that you just sit back, watch and enjoy.
Fax will be up for it and will it will be interesting to see how long we can stay in the contest.

How long we can stay in the contest? What a depressing point of view.

I'd say Fev have, on paper, a better 6 & 7. I'd have said Chisholm too but think JWH is playing very well at the moment. Ferres and Welham certainly would bring something to most sides at this level. Moors is certainly an xfactor at this level but we also have Springer and Tangata. Lets see.

Because if you go into a game with that mindset you are on the backfoot immediately. I'd prefer it if my team went into the match with a positive attitude, not thinking the other team is better than us before a game even starts.

Absolutely, but what I said about the team was "Fax will be up for it" which clearly is a positive attitude, nothing depressing about that at all.

As a player, I would have and have gone into games when playing against one the best sides in the comp who are currently sitting unbeaten at the top of the league even more ready, precisely because of that and the Fax lads will be exactly the same.

However the question remains for me as a supporter since the Toulouse and Oldham games, have we really improved enough to compete against the best for a full 80 minutes?

It's one thing to have a couple of good performances and results against Dewsbury and Newcastle than Fev and for me what i said was "it will be interesting to see if we can stay in the contest" or to to put it another way, as above to see if we really have improved.

Does no one else wonder that?

An added factor of interest to me is, how will the lads do playing at home in a big game in front of their own crowd for the first time in over a year.

Sometimes it can work for you, sometimes it can work against you.........................................character test?..........................................interesting.

It's an acid test of extreme acidity.

It's quite difficult to predict based on recent history. It would seem the improvement has been exponential rather than incremental, meaning we have won but won beyond a convincing manner. To nil two teams in consecutive weeks, away from home, and both I think will be finishing mid-table. Toulouse has put the absolute cleaners through eveyone, apart from against us where apart from the first 20, we were pretty evenly matched. If we get flogged, then again Grix is going to be under scrutiny. Can beat the teams below but won't compete with those above. If you follow the NRL, Cronulla got rid of John Morris on this very principle. I think Grix has a lot to prove on Sunday.