I have felt for some time that we play far better away from home than at KR. After Friday agaisnt Wigan i think i know why. It seems the expectation of some of our 'Fans' is just unreal. When the hooter went for half time, A load of fans behind me started booing, I could not believe it, I thought it was a great Derby first half. I asked the guy directly behind me what he was booing for to be told we were Sh**e and hadn't even scored. It seems unless we beat teams by 40 every match then the atmosphere is somewhat downbeat and i just wonder if this is getting to the players, I wonder if they all feel under real real pressure all the time to destroy teams.

Away from home is a different story. They seem much more relaxed, focused and skillfull. We have lost 3 this year and 2 of those were at KR. I really do enjoy the away matches far more than the home matches at the moment.

Does anyone else feel the same? Especially the fans who go to all the away matches?

Spot on! Sooner we move way from KR the better.

I think we're moving just at the right time. Bradford should of taken a leaf out of our book. Did you see their crowd the other night ? just over 7k. Thats awfull.

At home they get all the idiots who boo them and don't support the team and who have their own anti-Potter agendas to worry about.

Away from home they get the rich kids with helecopters and the real supporters who wouldn't miss a game.

I dont think Potter is a bad coach. Again today our attack (and defence for that matter) was far better. I honestly feel that a certain fear seems to envelop the players at KR that just isnt there at away matches.

Did you? I found it a really frustrating first half with the amount of handling errors and penalties.

I didn't hear the booing. Where were you standing?


I can't afford away matches very often so have not yet been to one but they didn't sound like they performed much differently in the first half today than they did in the first half on Friday? It sounds like they did better in the second half today, just as they did on Friday. Would you say that was accurate? I'm just going from the radio commentary.

I think Saints bottled it on Friday, yes, but they found the resolve against Wire after a 10 minute mini-collapse so they [iare[/i capable of winning at home under pressure. If I remember at the time Jammer and someone else were seen to be doing a lot of geeing up just after that try-fest so maybe the team lacks a motivator at present to help them through? Just a theory.

Do you think we would have beaten Wigan had we played at the DW?

Yes i did enjoy it. It was a full blooded Derby match, with both teams giving everything. I was standing by the number 2 pillar in the pop side. I dont think we did much wrong in the first half. What we did do wrong we did very wrong however. Wigan are currently destroying teams week in and week out. They did not destroy us and we had them rocking in the second half, with a little more composure and a little bit of long overdue 'rub of the green' we could have easily won that game.

The thread is not about taking pops at fans who dont go to away matches i understand people cant afford to or work. The reason i am asking fans who go to away matches is cause they are there and can see the whole peformance. It's just an observation that we seem to play better away. It nothing i can put my finger on, we just seem more relaxed away from home, just wondered if anyone else had noticed.

Saints bottled it on friday!!!!

I disagree. I think we approached the game wrong and too much was made of the last Derby at KR etc.... Certain players were far to up for it. Wigan were much calmer and played their normal game. With that said they only beat us via goal kicking. They did beat us though and while i agree the ref was poor, he was no worse than any other of the refs currently. The current interpretation of the rules is killing us, It goes against all our strenghts and rewards negative play. But thats another argument!!!!! He did not give all the penalties away and knock on on the pies line time after time.

If that match was at the DW Stadium, yes i honestly believe we would have played better and i would not at all be surprised if we do beat them at DW. Wigan currently are the best team in SL. they desrerve to be top and they deserved their win on Friday.

It was the lost - or rather, never gained! - composure I was talking about when I mentioned bottling it. Either through nerves or through over-eagerness we never did manage much in the way of composure and that in part led to our 15 handling errors and giving away 13+ penalties. A team can't do that and hope to win a match! Mind you, that we did do that and almost won it gave me some encouragement. If we can just get the discipline under control and if we can just start thinking creatively on attack - maybe we need our halfback pairing back again - then we have every chance of beating anyone really.


It won't have the same appeal, obviously, but let's hope you're right! Someone needs to bloody beat them anyway!!

Teams tend to make mistakes at the start of the season. New players. New coaches. New coaching techniques. It all adds up to create a degree of uncertainty that you don't see toward the end of a campaign when players appear to be operating with near telepathic understanding of each other's game. We have a new halfback pairing, which often causes a bit of confusion - and to make matters worse we've been forced to break it up to accommodate Wellens' injury. On top of that - strike centre #1 & #2 (who is a rookie) are injured and we're having to compensate with a kid who is closer to being a second row.

No SL team can overcome the above without milk being spilt.

As for Wigan. Let them have their fun in the sun. Saints fans - of all people - should know you don't win a championship by looking good in your first ten games. And Wigan won't either. Right now they're relatively healthy and with a new coach whose tactics are novel. But they'll only be novel for so long. SL will get wise to them, just as they got wise to Millward's and Anderson's. It's funny watching the pies salivating at the arrival of the Second Coming. They remind me of the Bandar-log (Monkey People) from Kipling's "Jungle Book". Despised and ostracised by the rest of the jungle for having no law they hop from tree to tree, hurling sticks and poo down at the inhabitants in the hope that they'll [inotice them[/i.

[i"We are great. We are free. We are wonderful. We are the most wonderful people in all the jungle! We all say so, and so it must be true."[/i

LOLZ.

As for us, I'm pretty relaxed about our progress so far. We only need to be in the hunt come the end of the season - and then we'll see what we will see.

Just brilliant!

all too true...if we are in third place at the end of the season, I would be fairly optimistic about a trip to Old Trafford.

I still wouldn't be at all suprised to see us top the table. It is likely to take a win at the piedome, mind.

Well the majority of next season will see us AWAY, if we are to play at Widnes RLFC. So thats plenty of win win wins for us.

I agree with that. Once everyone has played them the first time around then coaches and teams will be wise to their tactics and find ways around them. We were getting that way in the second half, if only we'd been able to put our heads on right. Still, we're doing ok in terms of results and we have enough players in each match who have outstanding matches to keep our attack ticking over, albeit with some hiccups near the line sometimes.

Agreed.

We are going to suffer losses on the way though, with the subsequent much gnashing of teeth on here at times as people want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

In my opinion the match on Friday was won with the coin toss.

Both sides scored 2 tries to none with the wind at their backs. The difference was that Wigan got to do it in the first half, and you can go for your kickable penalties when you're in front.

We were chasing the game second half and that is always more difficult. You don't take 2 points when they're on offer because you feel you need to score tries to drag the game back. You push passes you wouldn't normally push because you see yourself behind on the scoreboard.

It was a good tense derby and could have gone either way. When you look at that game and the Hull KR game, we could easily be at the top of the tree ourselves. No need to panic, we'll be right up there challenging this year.