clearly either a player not wanted, or has a had a slight injury worry but nothing worth mentioning, a good game at Fev and he may be back in contention. or he may just walk. and would anybody blame him.

He made his debut like 4 years ago, I know he spent a year in NZ but surely he should be at least a regular bench player by now. The worry is that these other talented forwards that are coming through like Smith and Oledski get the same treatment.

With Leeds unable to score points, worth noting that Zak Hardaker is killing it for Castleford. One try and two assists in the first half, including a near length of the field break and pass.

Appalling first half with the ball in hand, Salford showing how it's done, running hard from depth with angles we run sideways give it to a stationary player who then try's to push through the defenders, not good enough, and our lack of ideas is a coaching issue.

They have been good cas, if Hardaker had stayed at Leeds I would hazzard a guess we wouldn't be getting this level of performance from him. They have creative halfs and a coach

Zak was very good. There was never any doubt about his ability and i was pretty sure this would be what we would see from him in that Cas team.

Could be a difficult night next Thursday on current form.

Nice hands for the last try too. Amazing what a couple of months with a halves coach can do.

Cas have been good going forward, we might get some joy down Gale and Eden's side if we can actually construct an attack down there. Wire without Hill, Ratchford, Currie, Gidley - think they'll be comfortably the best team in the league when they're back.

Another patchy performance from us tonight I think we were probably the better team tonight and deserved the win but we are not taking enough chances we created 4 or 5 breaks that's weren't finished tonight Watkins had a couple, Parcell and burrow and Keinhorst and we didn't come up with a try, but a wins a win and hopefully we improve as season goes on.MOT!!!

Really weird game. I really felt we were comfortable for most of it but just didn't kill it off. In patches we showed what we can do with the ball, especially with numbers flooding the ruck area.

Golding good defensively, Ormandroyd good in decent minutes, Keinhorst outstanding and very encouraging to see Ward acting like an extra pivot,

10 minutes 1st half & 15 mins tops 2nd half we looked a threat but that wont be anywhere near good enough against better teams.
It was refreshing to see an attacking kicking game for all of 5 minutes but then we stood off went flat & looked devoid of ideas.
Also our last try was from a blatant fwd pass but their 1st was from a blatant obstruction the Ref was poor all night & im surprised it didnt kick off.
Still dont see us troubling the top 4 we need fresh faces & ideas on/off the pitch.

That last try had three blatant passes. I agree above, that although maybe better overall over 80, it was still yet again a lucky win, and that's two weeks on trot lucky. We seem really just reliant on our one man Parcell, who is way above his team mates. Just like the end of last year, reliant on one man who saved the season.

Bigger tests next two weeks. I said before Leigh game, the first five games were the tests to people's opinions. Four out of five wins is where the optimists would have expected, based on those fixtures, three out of the five is where the rest expected (those tipping just above bottom four), and two would be even worse than last year and gone backwards. We could still end up with four, doubt it, but let's see next two weeks.

It says much about the game when there are almost as many posts about the Cas v Warrington game as there is about the Leeds game.

Pretty grim stuff between two very average sides - I am unsure as to how the standard will improve.

\the defence for the first and last Salford tries was appalling as for the attack the last try came off 2/3 forward passes.

The worry for me was they didn't look fit a number were blowing after 10 minutes including Ward against a quick side I think they would have really struggled. Good performances from Parcell, Keinhorst and Golding the rest distinctly average.

Awin is a win but 2015 style it isn't - next week should be a good gauge of how long McDermott has in charge.

I think second paragraph suggests you are intimating a return to the 2015 style?

Hang on just a moment. I'm an optimist, I tipped us to squeeze into the top 4. I stand by that. But no way on god's earth would away defeats at saints and/or cas come as a surprise, let alone in the early season.

Thursday could get messy if we're not a lot better, granted. But it's winnable and we should target it.

Hang on a minute there actually. The ones predicting Leeds to finish top four had us above Saints and Cas, how can they be expecting that if expecting losses against them. I agree harder games, hence why I said the majority (those outside the top four and sneaking in the eights) would have expected three wins, with probably losses to Saints and Cas.

I was talking more about the fixtures. Last year we lost to Saints away, check, beat Hull KR away (Leigh replaced), check, beat Salford at home, check, lost away to Cas, lost at home to Catalans. So as I said, three wins would be where the majority expect, those that believe top four must have expected four out of those fixtures otherwise there wouldn't possibly be enough in it to finish top four, and two would be a repeat of last year. Four wins is still on, so a good indicator of whether there is improvement or not. I have a sneaky feeling that Cas might just be a little too over confident come Thursday, and push things they may not usually do.