bit harsh this thread imo it must be extremely hard for royce, altho its not a terrible start if am honest, having the factors of injuries, temporary ground ( all games feeling like its away ), a disinterested eastmond and lets not forget we have lost to very good teams aswell

He does seem sincere and humble and looks a very likeable bloke and I actually feel sorry for him as he looks out of his depth at the moment.

That was me being honest and not sarky by the way.

To be fair, nobody is saying sack him, I'm Defo 100% not calling for him to be sacked and I think he looks a good bloke but there are things that look to be wrong through poor coaching.

Everything has gone backwards in his first five games and I think he's had pretty good teams out in all five games. Even saintsfan deep down knows we've started 2011 looking poor.

I hope it all works out but I just can't see it at the moment as he looks way out of his depth.

I suggest we all give Royce some slack, let him get on with it and grow into the job. I would probably past judgement when we,ve had 6 consecutive games with an almost full strength squad, and not this disrupted team we have at the moment.

We will never be able to judge him then as we won't get almost full strength team playing 6 weeks in a row.

He's come to the club at a difficult time but I think he needs to show stronger management with regard to the Eastmond situation. Its all very well saying that he's a professional and will do his best but the reality is its like someone serving their notice at work, yes they carry out their duties but theres no enthusiasm and thats the difference between winning and losing games.
Assuming Simmons is in charge of team selection he should have the courage to leave Eastmond out or move him to another position where his role is less pivotal.

I know we have got injuries and we haven't got a ready made replacement but in the interest of team spirit and unity Simmons needs to take charge of the situation

I'd agree that if Eastmond isn't really putting in for the team you'd be better with someone else playing, even if on paper it weakened the team. But wouldn't the players and coach already have picked up on that? If they had, surely he would have been dropped?

I think its pretty clear that no-one is calling for Royce's head, just asking him to bring the performances up to scratch. Besides, sacking a coach mid way through a season is a fairly certain way to guarentee your side not to win a trophey.
If we're 12 weeks in and not in a play off spot, then Royce should be worried, but for now, he's going to rightly get the benifit of the doubt.

Lack of options is a problem for us this season. If we drop Kyle then at present we could replace him with Gary Wheeler or Jonny Lomax. Except Wheeler was injured until this weekend and Lomax went off injured on Friday. There is no-one else to replace Eastmond (and Kyle will know that).

Jamie Ellis, you utter berk.



I've been very happy with what I've seen from Gaskell and think he would be a good foil for Pryce when he's back.

He signed on a 2 year deal with Leigh beginning of this season.