It's Richard Owen so I'm not bothered.

Our defending, for most of the game, was plain soft. I don't like saying it, but I'm seriously struggling to come up with an alternative description.

All 'ifs' & 'buts' though, isn't it doc? As a Leyther, I would argue that some of your comeback tries were preventable, especially the three in rapid succession, while our winger was having a kip.

Still, however soft the tries were, it all made for an enthralling spectacle - 100% better than the handbags at Leigh, at the start of last season.

A coach is expected to accept the blame for a poor performance and credit the players for a good performance. Yes that can be tedious but unlike us fans, he has the responsibility to keep the players motivated and maintain their self confidence.
Some on here have never been convinced that Lowes cuts the mustard. Fair enough - everyone is entitled to an opinion. For some that fixed opinion means they will always find a reason to criticise . If it's not team selection it's use of substitutes. If it's not tactics it's motivational skills.Or of course the complaints about dealing with the media.
Yesterday for 65 minutes our pack was clearly second best- Hansen Hock Moi Moi ( all internationals) and the rest were guided around by Higham ( who outplayed our star hooker ) and Paterson ( for me their best player yesterday) . As a result we did not have a platform for our half backs to receive the ball on the front foot. Consequently any attempt to get the ball outside was easily stifled by their line speed or slow delivery of the ball meant we lost yards.
An example - a slow play the ball, pressure on the receiver meant the pass to Gaskell was behind him. Gaskell gathers it and is immediately under pressure from the defence. He attempted to find Clare but , because of the pressure, the pass was wayward. Brierley is lurking and races to the try line.
Dominance in a game is dictated by the forwards. As I attend other championship matches when Bulls matches permit, I've seen 10 of the 12 sides in the first 4 rounds - I've not seen London or Workington. Of the 10 I've seen , in my opinion Leigh have the best pack followed by us.

Here, here. The games that Leigh and Bradford have cooked up so far have been extremely exciting and I hope that continues - for this season, at least

Oh no FA caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

The mirror able to tackle the job has yet to be built

There's a hall full of them in Blackpool.

Doesn't help when the only place I've found that does show every attendance figure somehow manages to get the announced ones wrong.

Both Hull sides announced their attendances on website/twitter this week, and League Express still managed to get them wrong in their match reports. Something that I've noticed has been happening for a while.

Some one mentioned early the lack of aggression in defence cost you?? I thought it was your over aggressive defence cost you! People kept rushing out of the line trying to but the big one on one hits on and just kept bouncing off (Blythe being the main culprit) when you calmed down and went as a line we struggled to breach you! Thought it was a quality game and can't wait for blackpool

Blythe even took the mick out of himself with a tweet after the game about him flying out the line and missing every time.

He's normally quite a solid player, although I agree I'm not convinced he's a forward. He had a 'mare though on Sunday.

I've called Blythe out for doing that in previous games, so he has form for being a total moron in defence. I'd like to think our coaching staff could get it through to him to stop trying to smash people, but so far they seem to be failing.
I really don't know why we don't try Walshaw as our bench 2nd rower/centre for once. He's capable of playing both positions, just like Blythe, and isn't such a loose cannon.

In all honesty, I wouldn't play Walshaw unless we were desperate. Don't rate him at all. But I see the point. I think for that spot though they want someone who's more of a back that can play in forwards, rather than vice versa (as Walshaw would be). That way you have some actual back cover on the bench, but if you don't need it, you can use him elsewhere. Baile would fit the bill too.

I find it odd that Blythe is the one trying the big hits anyway, he's hardly the biggest bloke is he? Surely you want someone with a bit of size doing that, so that if they do land, it sends the opposition player into next week.

To be fair, much as it clearly didn't help, it wasn't really the 'flying out of the line' which cost us early on; it was the fact we were, in the vast majority of tackles, going backwards - often at a rate of knotts. Sometimes pathetically so, as in letting a bloke who had three pairs of hand on him touch the ball down. THAT, is the lack of aggression which really cost us, imo - not only in the try but in the fact it allowed Leigh to be on the front foot for most of the game; no wonder they always seemed to be in our line as fast as we were, that's what happens when you lose the tackle.

I know Leigh have some big lads but that is no excuse. We were going backwards against Swinton too, last week, and they were quite a bit smaller than us in general, they just ran harder. We seemed out enthused then as we we appeared to be out enthused against Leigh for most of the game. Hopefully, we're saving it for later?