I would suggest Toulouse is a crunch game - playing a pretty ordinary side travelling some distance away. Fax have a chance to put the last 3 horror shows behind them and win this one handily. Lose this one and I think heads have to roll - these have been heavy defeats recently...

I cannot believe how you have started this season after last.

The Grand Final could have gone either way if your kicker had the right boots on. I'm glad he didn't.

I know you took a lot of good natured stick from our lot over the 'country mile' statement by Calland but your team cannot be as bad as the scores suggest. The coach has to carry the can. Someone has to.

Somewhere in this thread it was suggested that you have 5 leaders out on the park which cannot be good. One leader, whether it's Larder, Penky, Black or whoever it don't matter. One leader who they all will listen to.

Watene looks too big to be of any use to a team other than for a couple of minutes. He's carrying too much weight around to be of benefit to your team. Stanley, come on, who in their right mind would sign him on at his age whatever it is. He looks as old as me and I'm 52 FFS.

Stick with it guys. I've witnessed some dark days up here in South Cumbria over the years. We need each other among the traditional clubs to keep believing. Raiders haven't started as we finished last season. Both of our teams are 'top of the ground' teams. I'm waiting for the sun to start shining and dry out the grounds so that we can see the type of play we had last year.

The future is Blue and White as they say.

The point I was trying to make was that you should have put 100 past us. We had no commitment, no enthusiasm, no idea in attack and a complete inability to defend.

The post I was replying to implied / asked if fev were really 44 - 4 good, I lust replied that it was fax that was that bad

cool for cats!

some people are saying its just lately that we cant defend but look at some results from last year and then tell me its just lately30 Featherstone
Barrow35323850 Whitehaven
Widnes 4234: 28 Halifax

need i go on, does anyone get the point?

most of them look terribly unfit both physicall and mentally, others are simply past it.
all we need to do now is avoid relegation and start afresh next year with a new 3 year plan

It's no coincidence that the older heads on here seem more reluctant to join in the "coach bashing". We've seen it all before, and out of approximately 20 coaches Fax have had in the 30 years I've been supporting them, I reckon there's only 4 of whom haven't felt the flak from the fans .... these being Maurice Bamford, Colin Dixon, Chris Anderson and even Martin Hall before he handed over to Calland. Even Mal Reilly and John Pendlebury came under fire at some stage. It's extremely difficult to get the ultimate coach, and maybe the "coach carrosel" is the only way to be, especially at this level.

I was talking to a fellow poster about this subject the other day & I agree with you Tony. Maybe there should be a ban on over 30's using this messageboard and then they could all sing from the same song sheet ?
I wonder how many of these users actually know what's involved in coaching, Bamford & Dixon I have played under both in teams that they have coached, two very very different approaches to caoching. One of them had a fantastic RL brain and brilliant man management skills, the other a bully who when he didn't get things to work chose to throw his flat cap on the floor and shout obsceneties, failed to turn up at crucial sessions to work in the media, after dinner speak etc etc. Coaching really is not an easy job when things aren't going right, it's how you pull through that counts.
Me, I'd take ugly wins every match for the remainder of the season, some folks wouldn't I bet.

Do you want to borrow some ' spanners ' , you can lend us them back later in the year

Is a great coach one who gets the best from the best players or makes the mediocre ones as good as the best.
In our league its the latter and Millward is a master at improving what he has, I look at what he did last time at Leigh with what he had, what he did at Saints (Stankovich, Bennett, Stewart, Martyn etc) and I can see every weekend what he is doing again at Leigh. We have a pretty young team with a couple of old heads thrown in, mostly local products who have discovered what its like to be coached properly and have reacted positively to the regime of fitness, diet and personal development introduced.
My biggest disappointment with you guys is that you recruit for a quick fix, no forward planning. The amateur and junior set up in the area is first class, you need to invest in it more supported by a quality coach to bring them through.

And I thought we'd just managed to get rid of all the Leigh fans, then bang! You're all back.

I can guess which one is which, MM! Personally, whereas I understand the frustration and horror what's going on at the moment, we can't keep going mental and chopping and changing everytime we hit a bad spell, it's ridiculous! At least give Calland the full season to show what he's made of. Patience .... it's a virtue .....

I can understand your adoration for Mr Millward, but he's the Neil Warnock of Rugby League. Great tactician and motivator who'll make an immediate impact when he starts somewhere afresh (Wigan apart!), but once he gets his feet under the table ..........

And did you say this when we signed him ?? No everyone was saying what a fantastic signing