Feeling slightly depressed but hopefully that will be a wake up call. To be fair the lads only had 5 working days to turn round for this one and a late Friday night game was always going to be tough. I wondered why we stuck to the same team now we have a bit more depth to the squad, we could have brought some of the other lads in fresh. I am constantly puzzled at why we keep playing Jonno at FB, he is far more dangerous in the halves - it is not as though we haven't any other options for FB. Miles is apparently fit, and Salty and Sharp can play there. We still have Saxton and Eccleston for the wing (Potts still injured). The right wing is a real weakness, for me wing is not Salty's best position. We need Heaton and Potts when fit - this was our best combination last year.
Still onwards and upwards there is a long season ahead.

Oh yes, and Stringer took a lot of verbals from our fans as he lined up for the kick off. He just laughed it off and smiled at the people giving him stick. At least that made me smile.

An Italian POW and a Buffoon Eh,just because I speak the truth and Tezzer realises you are NOT world beaters, wake up Nigel ,smell the Coffee ,welcome to the real world ,it's going to be a long hard season.What was your prediction?It didn't happen did it,a you stick to the Owls and the Mary Ellen game ,I don't regard you as a Fax fan anyway, I probably watch Fax more then you.You Yorkies have some strange names,Lintle Crindon, and NIGEL a real burden to bear. jog on.

If anything we were the better side in the first half and had the better chances, Sharp, Fairbank, Gaz Moore, Saltonstall all clear through but failed to find the line on each occasion and Saltys disallowed try for a forward pass on another break didn't help but at least we made the chances and broke them on multiple occasions.

Second half after the Maneely try was overturned it just went badly wrong, on the back of the penalty they immediately went full length down field and scored quickly followed by 2 more scores from allowing the ball to bounce on last tackle high kicks and game over.

Eagles completion rate improved second half with less handling errors and on the back of that and a high penalty count were clinical when they got the chance I was impressed by their speed and on this showing are an improved side from last year.

I'm an eternal optimist

We can't and won't win every game nor do we expect to. It was dissapointing and a frustratiing night. Lest see how the rest of league go tomorrow. In 7 days time we will be looking forward to our trip to Cumbria.

First half
Thought we were really good and were the better team. Created lots of chances and was awesome in defence. We could of quite easily gone in at half time at least 20 0 up.

Second half
Again we started really well forcing a error straight from kick off and actually crossing the line. It was rightly disallowed for crossing, think it was Maneely? He didn't need to run behind the player he could of passed the ball out and we would of got over the line anyway.
Don't know what happened next but we just seemed to switch off and they scored 3 quick tries and the game was lost in that period. We still created a couple chances down the left and could of possibly got back into the game if we'd scored off them. Overall we were massively outplayed by Sheffield and even if we had of fine in 20 0 up at half time we would have still lost the game based in the second half performance.

The ground
Don't know why I've called it that because everything about it is a total joke from the parking to the facilities. I'm assuming it's called a temporary stand because it looks like it could fall down at any minute, the fanzone behind the "temporary stand" isn't a fanzone its a tent that charges £4 for a pint of watered down carling, a few portaloos as well for everyone to share with no hand washing facilities was pretty grim as well.
The parking outside is organised chaos, what they gonna do when they play Leigh and Bradford? They'll take a lot more than we did. A rugby league team playing in the championship shouldn't be allowed to play there.

Workington next week

It's a game we will win and can make some changes. Personally I'd put salty at full back try Johnston and Moore at half backs, move Murrell to loose forward and deffo bring Divorty and if Bracek and heaton are fit play them as well.

I knew you was referring to me Nigel,but I think you should concentrate on Mr Jagger and his statements of Supremacy, it seems he wasn't amused last night.

Fax won't be the last team to get beat at that $hithole on a Friday night, Leigh won't be the last team to get beat at the Batley mudslide either.

The better teams will come good as the ground hardens, spoke to Weston about last week who had been in the NRL for 8 seasons and he said he had never played on anything like that before.

Say whatever you want, I was in attendance last night , you was NOT, this team will have to improve on last night's performance we are not nearly as good as some think we are, I'm a realist to compete we will need to go full time , Sheff gave proved this, Mr Aston is a very clever Coach,I just hope RM will not be found wanting when the pressure is on,he has had no pressure in the past.

This week, like last is just one game and we need to learn from it and move on. Next week may not pose too great a challenge, though you never know. What we do need is to be on our game for Batley and put last night behind us, the Seagulls are a good team, we all know that we just need to beat them at home and hopefully not have to play them down there again.

Well it was a pretty bizarre game was that and the blown chances in both halves were quite unbelievable. I don't think the score truly reflected the game and we could have and should have been out of sight at halftime. I cannot recall seeing so many times players been put through gaps with the line beckoning for the ball to be dropped. The eagles tries were pretty predictably down the left (all of them) and they benefitted from 2 bizarre bounces of the ball for two tries. Jonno slipped a metre from the line with nobody in front of him and fairbank dropped one in the second half whilst crossing the line. I am not too downhearted because we really could have won that game. Manning was immense again, Moore created most of the bombed chances and salty ran it in all night as did sharp. Too many silly penalties gifted the eagles field position in the second half and it cost us because in the first half they did not really press our line that much and when they did we defended stoutly.
Scott probably had one of his worse games for us, Smeaton had one he will want to forget and I think there will be some changes for next week with Heaton in the side as well as potentially Grix playing.

Pretty much identical to how I saw it and posted about it.

Scotty also defends that side and if we have a set line he very rarely gets beaten but in open running play his lack of pace can and was exposed, what didn't help was Smeaton getting injured and staying on, add the two together and that's why the huge gaps appeared and Eagles were good enough and quick enough to take their chances.

We lose one game, away on a Friday night at Sheffield, a full time team and suddenly we are rubbish, must improve, go full time, get Bracek in???
When was the last time a team won a division/league without losing a game??? We laughed at Leigh last week but also followed up those comments with remarks to say they would probably still finish top of the pile.
Mr Jagger, I don't know you, you're probably a really nice guy, love the club as we all do. But some of the negativity you spew is getting a bit tiresome.
Just enjoy your rugby!!! There are far more important things happening in the world!!!