Anyone else got deja vu? Remember as we plunged into the abyss with Mr M in charge and only began to climb out when Potter took over? Second half losses and lousy defence have to be down to the coach...

As soon as we went behind I knew the game was gone. Zero confidence in the Bulls squad at the minute.

Poor.

Why did we lose?

Well, the first point is that nobody in the bulls squad seemed to have noticed that there was a howling gale down the pitch from the Rolley end. Widnes regularly killed us with it all second half long.

The second point is what passes for our goal-line "defence", especially (but by no measn exclusively) in the area formerly known as Walker. You know that your defence is shiitt when you get a third of a century put past you at home by a team like Widnes, but the depressing thing is that, as so many times in recent seasons, you just KNOW that once the opposition is in our 20, they WILL score, and you just KNOW that they will basically WALK in, unchallenged.

Finally you just know that a couple of times at least the Bulls will be in pole position attacking the opponents' line, when they will gift long range scores. Those two pathetic attempts at last-play kicks would be risible by a 9 year old, but then to see Paddy have time to take the ball with nobody near him, get into gear, and stroll unchallenged for a hundred yards was really taking the mick.

Desperate times. Don't ask me how to fix it, there was probably much fine play to be admired by the Bulls but it counts for absolutely nothing when they lace it with so many pieces of dross. But if there was a place to start, it would be in trying to work out why our goal line defence looks like we have 3 men defending a line a mile long. Nothing new at all, sadly, but absolutely shocking nonetheless.

As I keep saying,guile at halfback and pace somewhere in the team FFS.

Widnes had Brown commanding the middle from half back and was different class and the speed of Hanbury from full-back.Widnes have pace and guile,something the BULLS need if they are gonna compete.Many players in that team are just not good enough.They have to stop kidding themselves.
Widnes are not a bad side though,far from it.

Let's see who they get rid of and who they bring in for next season.

Jeez,the sages on here can't even blame Elliot for this:-)

Glad I didn't go,season over before end of June

Christ. That has to be THE worst game of the season. With respect to Widnes, we should not lose a game like that from 18-4 up. Pathetic.
Wtf was Gale doing on those "kicks" to the corner. And I'm sorry, Paddy is no speedster is he, yet not one of our cart horses could catch him. Absolutely dire.

Still at least the season is over now, and I can stop giving a sh11t, and maybe enjoy watching some decent rugby from whichever team is next up to beat us.

We looked absolutely knackered with about 20 minutes still to go. Why? We've just had a two week break, if anyone was feeling tired it should have been Widnes after their game on Monday.

I'm starting to think that FC isn't going to cut it as a SL coach. The same goes for LSH but that's been obvious for years. Our sliding defence in general, our individual defensive reads and our overall composure under pressure just aren't good enough, and those things are all down to the coaching.

But this is all we have now, there's no way FC will be replaced because the funds just aren't there. We're set to lose a few more players from this already threadbare squad - plus the return of the loan players - and so far the only person we have been linked with is Carvell.
I honestly have no idea who FC is going to bring in, I have seen the list of ooc players and there really isn't anyone there that will improve us.

Next season will be an almost identical repeat of this one I feel, god knows how they are going to push season ticket sales with performances like the one we have just seen, FC already confirming there will be no marquee signings and some of our best talent leaving at the end of the season.

Completely and utterly depressed about every facet of the club right now. It just feels like practically every other single club in the league are making strides forward - both on and off the pitch - and we are just constantly backpedalling.

Oh yeah, and lets not forget that one of those teams played on Monday night, and one has had two weeks off. You would not think it to look at them would you?

Awful. I just knew Widnes were going to nick it as soon as we kept letting them back in the game. Most teams would have killed the game before half time.

Addy can go. Saw nothing from him today that made me want to keep him.

Gale did some ok stuff, but as soon as the game started getting away from us, he was no where to be seen. When he did pop up he gave Widnes a lifeline. 14 mins left all we needed was to put the ball on the floor. Oh no Gale puts a high kick in and Ah Van goes full length. His game management is shocking.

The fact Ah Van can go full length with the nearest player to him Scruton shows how badly we need Ainscough. We are badly lacking speed.

Kearney, i think its about time we move him from full back. Coming up with too many howlers. How slow was he to get to Browns kick before been smashed into touch. He should have been much deeper. His position is
Poor. Id move him to 6.

Positives: Donaldson, Blythe, Bateman and Sidlow.

The rest can hang their heads in shame. Losing a must win game to a team in 10th, AT HOME, when they played last week and we had a week off. Unacceptable.

Today we watched Widnes score over and over from the same set move down their left side. The whole crowd could see them setting it, but we had no answer for it.
When Paddy went full length and our faster player was Scruton, you know how much pace where lacking.

Some good positives from the first half, and the platt try. But sadly cancelled out and forgotten by the end.

Wrose than our season effectively being over, is looking towards next year.
With the number of rumoured outs, and returning of loan players. How are we going to field a team.
Blythe & Evans - returned
Lulia - going home
Whitehead - Gone
Diskin - retire? Over the hill, Do we want him?
Langley, Addy, Donaldson - rumours flying about.
Kearney - who knows

Looking at the list of other OOC players, there's not much. If Wakefield or whoever is offering Addy more, maybe that's because they no the isn't much else out there.
One positive, don't think we'll be worried about the cap lol.

Nothus,

agree 100%.I'll tell you what though,when you have no CASH,the thing you don't do,IMO,is put in place is a rooky coach with little experience,you need someone with experience, who can inspire a threadbare squad and from what I have seen so far FC doesn't have it coz he hasn't got the experience,simple as that.Its not rocket science is it and that is why I have always questioned the longevity of the present management right from the start.How the fooook are they gonna keep,never mind increase crowds for next season???We'll do well to win another game as every other SL team has more pace/guile than us,simple as that.