You've made a fool of yourself with your first comment, the support we gave the team yesterday was outstanding. Most of our fans stayed till the end and even applauded our team off, which they didn't really deserve. Have a look at the interview with Rob Burrow about our support on the Rhino's website, that will tell you all you need to know about how humbled they were by our backing. Your second comment has more credibility, Widnes were fantastic and probably would have beaten anybody. I did comment how well your lot played btw in my earlier post. Enjoy your success and lose the inferiority complex.

Oh christ he's off again. Didn't take long did it.

Last year after a few defeats it was "this team has no recent history of turning things around" and now with 2 players retired it's "this team has proven nothing yet.... blah blah"

Last year you wrote the team off for being "too old with poor recruitment", this year we're "too inexperienced with poor recruitment".

Maybe you'll get it right this year, maybe not. I highly doubt it but I'll wait and see. I'm not one for writing a team off after ONE bad performance. Especially a poor game the week before what's in effect, a major final (for us).

I wasn't at the game and the 3rd Widnes try had a great deal of fortune about it.....but I commented elsewhere the 1st try of the second half was particuarly appalling. Most of the team ambling back with their backs to the threat after a given penalty..no urgency. Burrow just threw up his arms in despair. We all knew we would miss Sinfield's captaincy, but as others have said it still didn't stop some previous routs when he was in the team. Maybe those opposing teams were 'flying high' at the time, but it was still difficult to excuse those (at least) similar capitulations. The good thing was the team always bounced right back very quickly...got to hope for the same again and that this was just too many eyes on the bigger prize next week. I'm sure the team will be more revved up, but with the injuries mounting you have to be concerned.
I would still persevere with Sutcliffe and Lilley at halfback ....swapping and changing cannot be better. Who else could play there anyway? Not Burrow for god's sake. I continue to believe Golding has the confidence and abilities to make a success of SO alongside Lilley, but of course he is now also injured.
We really need the return of Faloon and a better leader by example in the pack - JJB? Hope these two in particular make it back for next week.

It is far too soon to make long term judgements.

My observations are made a long way from the Halton Stadium but it would appear to me that we got caught on the wrong side of momentum created by a lively and fast running Widnes side who deserve great credit. That together with the odd unfortunate bounce of the ball and the effects of 3 more injuries meant we never really got into the game.

It is worth noting that 7 of their 10 tries (5 from their wingers) came from their backs while our backs produced 11 out of 18 team errors (Hall 6 and Briscoe 2) and 15 out of 36 missed tackles. Their half backs comfortably out performed our two youngsters in all aspects of the game which perhaps is to be expected for now but this never the less had an important bearing on the result.

Our forwards did put in some hard work with Ferres once again topping the tackle count with 47 (and top offloader with 5) followed by Delaney 43, Cuthbo & Singo both 37, Galloway 31 and Garbutt 29.

They only made 12 more carries than we did and our inability to create more scores is a worry as we are clearly lacking sharpness in attack which together with the bad injury news was why Mac looked rather dejected after the game.

Yes

I agree with the last paragraph - it was obvious from the off that the team lacked leadership. To say this would have not happened under Sinfield and Peacock is wrong it happened plenty sometimes compounded by their own performances.

We need to move on from Sinfield - he was a truly outstanding player and captain but he cannot go on forever. Losing McGuire has not helped either - we don't have any natural leaders who are fit. That is the legacy of such a dominant force as Sinfield there can never be a plan B. Sinfield virtually never got injured and it would not have worked to say whilst Kevin is on the field Zac you control the team - it is unrealistic.

How many points were Leeds already trailing by before the injuries started to occur?

________

Yesterday was Leeds' 655th game of the SL Era. The 56 points was the 7th time they have conceded that many (or more) and the minus 44 the 6th time likewise. A total of eight fixtures cover both stats - time will tell if Widnes end the season the lowest ranked of the opponents involved (currently Halifax finishing 6th in 1996 - the other teams were Bradford (3), St Helens (2), Wigan) but history already shows that Widnes are the only team to inflict such a defeat on a reigning Champion Leeds outfit - given that yesterday was the only one of the eight to have occurred since Leeds first became SL Champions in Oct 2004.

I think it was 16-0 when Briscoe went off followed shortly by Ablett

Was Lilley goal kicker yesterday?

Yes, 2 out of 2 including one from touch line

Yes 2 out of 2 (One of them from touch)

Cheers fellas.

Is he now 1st choice kicker do we think?

No I think you need to get a grip and stop giving it the big I am, all over this board.. You posted the same rubbish last year when we lost a few and I pulled you on it then. You probably insulted me then too. 3.64892578125:5