It'll be a good game between two strong teams. As in most matches like this the team as makes least mistakes, gives the least penalties away will probably come out on top. Up The Fax!

I wouldn't pay any atttention to what people put on them FB fans pages, of any team, it's seldom of much value. Keighley fans on their FB page seemed to be confidently expecting a win prior to the game against us, but their fans on TotalRL were much more realistic.

There's a narrative amongst some Fev fans that because we've got rid of McDermott and brought Long in that we're a completely different team, that may well turn out to be true in time but Keighley were so poor last week that we can't really judge much, so today's game will tell us a lot more.

The bookies seem to be going with a handicap of around 18, as a Fev fan if we cover that I'd be ecstatic, I'll be happy with a win, Fev v Fax games are rarely one-sided. I'm surprised (but quite pleased) few on the Fev social media pages have commented on the ref, Chris Kendall has officiated Fev/Fax twice and we've lost both times, the second occasion being the infamous one where a 6th-tackle penalty for offside handed the game to Fax, of course that was on the intervention of a touch judge but a lot of Fev fans were very unhappy that day and were still grumbling about Kendall a couple of years later.

We (Fev) were a bit scratchy with ball in hand at Keighley despite the score, we just had so much ball in their 20m that it didn't matter. I'm hoping that Elijah Taylor will be able to revert to his middle role if Bussey's back on the edge, that might help with out fluency on attack.

Today might be Halifax's best chance of beating us this yearas we have a significantly bigger squad for when injuries start to bite and also we are still finding our best 17 with some big names still not making the squad for one reason or another (Leilua, Moors, Davies, Evans etc). Should be an informative game anyway.

When thinking of typing something like that its best to stop I can't comment on the game as I were at an amateur game but we were tracking the scores but its pretty obvious you can't afford to start a game like that.

Boringly predictable that it would be lost early on in the forwards.Springer leading the way.....not good enough for us according to Grix....not a game for Maher too according to the coach...why the **** sign him then ? Final score line flattered us.Need to recruit more power to have any hope of promotion.

Wasn't there but yes, size was always going to be an issue. Doro could be that impact player, not sure about young Forster also. Still early days. Fev had 3 pre- season, all three against superleague opposition. They are ahead of us no doubting right now.

Well that was to be expected I suppose it’s a shame they put that many points on us but at least we managed 22 points. I suspect there will be quite few teams who will not score any points against Fev this season. Onward to the London game.

I see Grix has said in post-game interviews that Fax needed to be "braver" in terms of their game plan and presumably throw the ball around more, but surely he understands you have to have some sort of platform to be able to do that? You can't just expect gaps to open when you're getting hammered in yardage and being totally outgunned, for much of the first half when Fax had the ball they were relying on the outside backs taking the early carries whilst the forwards recovered from being marched relentlessly back up the field. The yardage figures in the 1st half were Fev 809 yards, Fax 438 yards and that tells its own story.

It's one thing to throw some shapes at the opposition when both teams are tiring and the line speed has gone, but if you want to try and do that from poor field position early in the game you're going to have to telegraph it to the opposition by keeping your wings out wide and a fresh defence will be ready for it.

Credit to Halifax for some good late passing movements though and Woodburn-Hall who was by far your best player scored a cracking try from the scrum move.

I completely agree with most of the comments on the match they were too big and too strong for us and believe me i do not like saying that. For me we are at a crossroads as a club after a tricky start as coach simon as led us to back to back third place finishes playing some good attacking rugby along the way. But what as become obvious to most of us is when it comes to playing the best sides in this league is our lack of penetration in the forwards and that leaves us on the back foot for most of the game with little chance of winning. I just hope that simon can see this too and what ever his preference is in the type of props he signs he will change is mind and balance our pack out better with our current hard working fit mobile forwards and some tackle busting types who might be only able to do short spells but will provide the punch we are missing. I do think Doro can help with this when he is fit to play but i do not see will maher as the answer so i would say we need at least 2 other players of the Doro mold to give us the punch we are missing. I would also ask this question of the new board they have said that in there own words we are going for it this year so they need to put there money were they mouth is and back simon to make the changes that are needed because if they do not there will be more days like yesterday for us to endure.

Very well put Phantom i just hope simon grix can see this too.

I completely agree with this.

Grix has tried the same gameplan against fev for the last few seasons and it doesn’t work , either the game plan is wrong or the players aren’t good enough to execute it . You have to recruit players that are available to play every style . In my opinion the fast mobile forward game plan doesn’t work because too much damage has been done in the first 30 mins . You have to go set for set on a physical level . Grixs’ gameplan only works if the players ‘ believe’ but that confidence/ belief is damaged so badly in the opening minutes of the game . He’s hoping for a rock balboa vs Ivan drago scenario which only works if you have a team full of balboas . This gameplan is obviously dictated to by budget , the board need to back him or he’ll be off and we’ll be back to square one in my opinion.

This show will be weekly I think https://youtu.be/cSeLgJJxqHo

This show will be weekly I think https://youtu.be/cSeLgJJxqHo

Well the result was no surprise as I mentioned pre match but just a thought or two on the pack scenario.

Last season Fax matched up pretty well to all the other teams in that area, (against some of them because of ill discipline we played with only 12 men for big minutes and still got the results).

The facts are only Leigh and Fev have been noticeably stronger, incidentally not only against Fax but all the other teams as well!!

Last years games against Fev they were pretty close affairs but on both occasions the better overall team won on the day as they did on Sunday.
It wouldn't have changed the result at the weekend but losing Bob from the middle after 5 or 6 minutes didn't help as it left us with just 2 forwards and little Woody on the bench / interchange for the rest of the game and if there's one team you don't want that to happen against it's Fev.

The primary reasons for Leigh and Fev having the advantage in the forwards comes down to two things, shortage of the better / bigger type of players at this level and money and that's why the few who are available are snapped up by the those with the bigger purse strings.

Grix is fully aware of how the game is played but with his lower budget is faced with the poorer choice of going down the bigger in size but not better in overall contribution or the more mobile bigger in minutes better overall contribution and that's it.

A couple of recent Fax player examples and the question, who would we choose a Keegan Hurst or a Titus Gwaze type of player?
and as stated with Titus it came down to money and his choice to move on not SG.

Another recent Fax player where he tried to address it was with Gadwin who was doing a great impact job and at the time proved that Grix both saw the need for a bigger middle and chose the right player.

As it turned out Springer left the club by mutual consent after a fallout that got out of hand.

The seeds for this were sown at that seasons Oldham away game over technical issues.
G S and others gave away the ball whilst in possession which contributed to an unacceptable loss.
GS and all the others got told about it but it was only GS who didn't like it to the point of leading to a rift and his departure.

In connection with that regarding the meter's made in a game stats, they don't only include those made by the pack.
You need to include the entire team and to look at some of the big contributors such as possession from the likes of completion rate / penalties because whoever has the ball makes the yardage along with the field position / number of tackles made / amount of juice in the tank etc and is the more likely to win the game and we haven't got the best record in more than one of those areas.

I completely agree with your realistic summary of the forward alternatives available to Grix; wasn't aware of the detail around Springers departure as at the time was very sorry to see him leave as he seemed to offer something we hadn't had in the forwards for several years. Unfortunately the signing of Maher felt to me as a recognition that we needed bigger forwards, but we're getting one who might be solid defensively but offered little going forward. My only hope here is that Grix is able to do with Maher what he helped achieve with Murray who I thought improved massively last season. In signing Doro and King i was really hopeful they would offer the dynamism that's been lacking in the pack - as one hasn't played yet and the others only had 1 game, probably only fair to give them time to show their worth.

I didn't attend the match but having seen the highlights it's a case of same old again. Some of that was hard to watch but we're only two games in and will undoubtedly improve. Injuries from that game won't have helped but Sheffield's win at Barrow points to some optimism for Fax. Another early away trip to POR has helped give Fev an early leg up again but we need to get on a roll now starting with London on Sunday. Up The Fax!