I went to the match. Our attitude was 100% better tonight. However, three things are still undermining us: our poor defence, our poor ball control and our tendency to lose composure when things drift away from the game plan.

And thirdly, can I just really abuse Meli for his atrocious defence tonight? Where the fook was he when Foster rolled King? He should have been in bloody support! Fancy leaving Foster, a sprig, to deal with King on his tod.

PS: Meli irritated me tonight.

Are you really being serious, or have you got everyone on the end of a hook?

A better start, and a bit of luck and we win that game. A young halfback combination and we are there or there abouts. How anyone can say something negative about the props after that effort is beyond me.

I get the impression you weren't pleased with Meli tonight.

Before I start thank you for your respect to Darbs before the game. You were a credit to our game.
Thought it was a great game plied in bad weather and big TP was very good. It could have gone either way.

tired cliche. When was the last time you saw that? When was the last time your attendances [iincreased[/i when you were bottom of the league?

Great match though. Hard luck saints - was cheering for you

No, I wasn't!

He also made a totally dumb pass to Foster when clearly Foster was about to go into touch. Meli's an international. He should have known better.

He just irritated me and I thought I'd share it. I know everyone will appreciate me sharing it!

However, I stayed until the end and clapped the lads off, singing all the way. I thought our attitude was 100% better. If they can carry that forward and work on the defence, composure and ball control (the two latter aspects may be linked) then we have a hope of making something of this extremely disrupted season. I just hope the lads don't let this defeat get them down. They mustn't let their heads drop.

I agree. I have a theory about that. I don't think our halves can cope with much else! I think a simple game plan was thought out back when we played Leeds away in order to facilitate our rookies and we have been unable to move on from that because of the subsequent disruption through injuries.

In addition, we lack original thinkers out there. We have no potential Longys. If either Pryce or Wheeler had been out there, play would have been varied as those two are thinkers.

I'm not entirely sure I agree, I think both Lomax and Gaskell have the potential to be that kind of player, Lomax especially. I wonder whether our game-plan is currently too ridged based on either the fear of things going wrong, the coaching staff not knowing what those two are exactly capable of, or perhaps even our over-reliance on Roby's ability to break the field from dummy half. I think had we had a run of games against 'easy' opponents similar to the 4 games recently, at this stage of the season I think we may have seen Lomaskell given a bit more 'artistic license' at this stage of the season.

Something that really irritates me in attack is something Johnny Lomax does when he takes a pass in an attacking position, he never passes quick enough for me.

He receives it, straightens up and then passes it which slows down our passing meaning that the defence can easily slide across. It never creates an overlap and it means Wellens has no option but straighten up and take the tackle.

It's a moot point but it really frustrates me, especially seeing the speed in the passing of Warrington, so efficient in getting the ball out wide.

Saints fan sorry, but meli made the space for fosters try and there was nothing he could do on the king one. it was a great kick and caught foster out but no shame in that. Warrington should never have been that far down field in the first place, Saints gifted territory in the first 10 mins.

As for the half backs well if you are bloding 2 at the same time, they are gong to make errors and have little cover. In the end you only gain experience by making mistakes. Last week the forwards were poor this week they we're great but we gave another 18 to 0 head start.

It was his defence generally. And I meant the pass he made to Foster when he should have run with the ball as Foster was way too close to the touchline already. Sure enough, Foster was bundled into touch.


Oh, absolutely. I think Gaskell is suffering at the moment. I haven't seen him drop the ball, for instance, in weeks. I think his confidence may not be the best at the moment. It's been a tough three weeks for both our young halfbacks.

Defence wins trophys, and ours is the worst since the early days of SL.

We look like conceding a try whenever the opposition gets within our 40 metre zone.

Offensively we are quite creative i feel, however this may be forced due to having to give the ball some air to have a chance of competing in the big games.
I get the impression that we are having to give 110% to live with the Wigans, Warringtons and Huddersfields of this world, whereas they are just patiently grinding us down into the ground.
I think the comeback last night was more Wire putting the cue on the rack, and being caught out a bit. This was shown for me in the second half when Wire merely sorted their gameplan out and shut us down completely.

I think you are wrong here. A catch from Foster and we were in. One point in it. Five to go. Likewise, wonderful 40/20 from Roby. Lomax drops it on the first tackle. They get a penalty and they score up the other end.

Our goal line defence is atrocious. Worst I have seen in years. Had we been able to defend last night even that could have saved us a loss but our terrible defence plus our brainfarts and lost ball cost us, not Wire's game plan. Monaghan made our lives miserable but that's all really.