The sky money excuse doesn't wash here.

Yes we have a smaller squad, but it was Franny who said he wouldn't buy players who weren't up to the task or who didn't buy into what he was trying to achieve.

Any player who is playing at SL standard should not be missing that many tackles and coughing up possession so easily. There are a number of players who must be pi$sed off at themselves yesterday. I imagine the coach and the players won't be looking for excuses.

Exactly. It is a convenient excuse for too many.

Who did we have missing yesterday? Kearney, Gale, Manase, Sidlow, Bateman and Platt, they might not be world beaters but we need them playing. If we get them back we might win 5 and draw 1. If not we'll be lucky to win 3. Cummins needs to get them working on defense.

Knee Jerk reaction from the usual knees, one bad game due to the usual dip in form from a skinny squad suffering injuries to their better players, if anyone thought the season was going to be one of ups and hardly any downs, better get a reality check real quick! Maccas last season is a case in point, but with Franny not leaving halfway through the Squad will get the results required for the playoffs!

How is it an excuse? Evans, Fairbank and Blythe are all on loan otherwise we'd have struggled to put 17 on the pitch.

This is how good our squad is and you're shouting a a dog for peeing on the carpet.

One bad game? Seriously. We have had several bad games in a row now (Salford excepted).

Anyway - that was not bad. It was atrocious.

Hardly knee-jerk at all. I said it was unacceptable and improvement was needed. What part of this was wrong? It was basic errors. Pathetic simple stuff.

I guess you didn't watch Wakefield's dire attempt, absolutely stuffed by an average side, whereas Huddersfield are a very good team.

Well "unacceptable", for one. I hate that being trotted out. If it could be unacceptable, that would be great. We could refuse to accept it, so the match would have to be replayed. However in real life your "unacceptable" mantra is just a meaningless cliche. We lost and we played poorly for large parts. Accept it, it [iisn't[/i unacceptable, it happened, it cannot be unaccepted, it's simply history now.

Improvement needed? We are truly fortunate to be provided with this insight. You are definitely right on this point. It hadn't occurred to anyone else. No, really.

I never said the squad was not "thin". I said it failed with the basics. That is nothing to do with Sky money. Unless of course you are trying to suggest that a wee bit of coin from Murdoch and his mob would suddenly turn Whitehead into a tackling machine and ensure Sammut could catch the ball more frequently?

I ACCEPT (there - your favourite word) that the less funding leads to less quality in the side (fact) but it does not excuse the inability to do the basics correctly. (excuse)

It was a crap performance. But there are reasons behind it. We're capable of better as results have shown. We need our best 17 fit and in form to compete with the top teams. We are 7th and are still getting results against the teams below us. This is good considering the weaker squad we have this year compared with last year.

I think you might be running into the same problem we had last year.

A lightweight pack which when fit and fresh can tackle and work hard and looks exciting when on the front foot.
But when injuries bite and forwards become fatigued and battle weary they cannot keep up the intensity.

Last year we looked great for a dozen games but then just got overpowered in the forwards and really struggled.
The worst thing was that then everyone got on the players backs which made it worse when it was not really their fault.

That is why Anderson went out and bought Koppy, Taai, Mullally and Fielden.

I think some of our fans need to manage their expectations a bit. We can't simply just go out and buy 4 top forwards. We knew our squad was light at the beginning of the season but there was nothing we could do about it so a rough patch like our current one was always on the cards.

There's no lack of effort on the part of the players so I hope people don't get on their backs too much. There are some individuals that can undoubtedly improve but I think our bad performances are mainly down to the effect of injury.

Who said anywhere that we should? The only mention I recall was by DG.

I think it is fair to say that we DO accept that our quality is not as good as it could be. It is also fair to say that the inability to do the very basics by our side at the moment is a major concern.