So we have three weeks left before the middle eights. We play once a week. Leigh have to fit 5 games into 3 weeks.
What shape will they be in for the middle eights and as their own success hindered their chance of promotion.

They are a professional outfit so they should have the squad to not be affected to much by the run in. Depending on form they should have as good a chance as anybody to make a push for promotion.

Think leigh will handle it better than us and I can't see them having any issues, bug test for us though to beat them, we need Mullaney as our 7 he is Mike's ahead of seijka and if Jimmy can't see that then I doubt he the man to lead us.

Shaw/mendeika
Williams
purtell
blythe
etu
gaskell
mullaney
clough
O'Brien
sidlow
Pitts
olbison
addey

Ferguson
halafihi
crossley
luaki

Needs to be our team I think for the remainder of games I think

Have Leigh rearranged both of their additional games yet? I know that one of them is scheduled for the wednesday [iafter[/i they play us, not sure about the other one though.

Yeah, they play Wednesday night against Hunslet, then on the 22nd against Dewsbury.

So, the run to the end of the regular season looks like this for the current top 4

1. Bradford - Sheffield (A), Leigh (H), Halifax (A) - Currently on 36 points
2. Leigh - Hunslet (H), Featherstone (H), Bradford (A), Dewsbury (H), Doncaster (H) - Currently on 34 points
3. Sheffield - Bradford (H), Featherstone (H), London (A) - Currently on 28 points
4. Halifax - Batley (H), Doncaster (A), Bradford (H) - Currently on 26 points

It's virtually assured that 1st and 2nd will be Leigh and Bradford, it's just a question of who gets which spot. As for the 3rd and 4th placed spots, that's a bit more interesting. Mathematically, Featherstone, Dewsbury and London could still make the Top 4.

5. Featherstone - Leigh (A), Sheffield (A), Whitehaven (H) - Currently on 26 points
6. London - Dewsbury (A), Workington (A), Sheffield (H) - Currently on 24 points
7. Dewsbury - London (H), Whitehaven (A), Leigh (A), Batley (H) - Currently on 21 points

Featherstone might be able to take advantage of Leigh given they're going to be playing their 3rd games in 7 days when they meet and I've no doubt Leigh might be looking past them to the game at Odsal. London possibly have the easiest of runs but they will need to take all 6 points to have a shot at a Top 4 spot. Ourselves and Sheffield have probably the hardest runs, even with Leigh having 5 games to everyone else as one of their games is at home against Doncaster and in fact only have 1 away day out of those 5 games. Halifax have a fairly easy time of it with Batley and Doncaster and the only real hard game is the last one against us.

Do we really have to push the team for wins over the last 3 matches or just try to put good solid performances in.
As there are 6 points on offer and third place is 8 points adrift it will probably not make much difference win or lose to the placings, if Leigh win all of the last 5 games the have left that is, is it now time to rest a few players ready for the super 8's ?

Id like to finish the season high on confidence and winning form so I would push to win each game, yes.

My top 4 prediction will be, in order

Leigh
Bulls
Halifax
Sheff

I said at beginning of the season, to my wife, the bottom 4 in super league would be Wakie, Widnes and both Hulls. Now I will change that to
Wakie
Widnes
Salford
Hull

If I were to be right, how many games will we win. I will say we might/could/should/maybe win 3. Would 3 wins be enough to get in the play off game, has anybody worked out how many games should get you finishing where. I would presume 7 wins would get you finishing top( yes it took me a while to work that one out ha)

Worth noting that Kevin Brown is currently out injured for Widnes, and might end up missing one or two games of the super 8s. No idea how the fixtures will work out, but whoever get to play Widnes before Brown is back will stand a much better chance of turning them over. I'd say he's even more vital for them than Gaskell is for us.

So naturally, I expect Leigh to be playing them week 1

Yes, as soon as I saw earlier this week Brown was out for 6 weeks, that pencilled them in the bottom 4

Without sounding too cliche i think we have to take it a week at a time. I expect teams to beat each other. Not just going to be a case of super league teams beating championship teams, with Leigh or Bradford hoping to sneak a win against an SL team. I wouldn't back on Widnes going to Leigh and beating them without Brown. We have a good record over Wakey at the moment. Under Smith Wakey seem to have gotten some confidence and will give anyone a game. It's all to play for. A lot could change over the next 10 weeks. Salford, Wakey and Widnes are all vulnerable IMO Also If KR are in the middles, with the CC distraction, an injury to Kelly and they don't look so convincing. All to play for.

I would say that in the Super 8's a minimum of 4 wins is needed to be in the mix for promotion. So that would be beating the other Championship clubs and at least one of the SL teams. It's a hard ask, but it's not an impossible one. However, we'd need all players pulling together and firing on all cylinders every week for the full 80. And that's where it falls down for us as we've yet to show that we can do that on a consistent basis.

None of the bottom 4 in super league have been turning in 80 minute performances either as they wouldn't be in position they are. Too much is made of performing for 80 minutes for me its how you deal with the time your not.

What is the date of the 4th v 5th play off?

And referee J Cobb.