Hypothetically, would Brian Noble have done any better given his experience in finals? He was also big on playing a settled team and if there's one thing that this season will be remembered for it's the inconsistency in selection and player positions (injuries aside).

Lowes has not shown that he is a top class coach by any means. He has done the first part, and got us to the MPG. ANyone can criticize any coach, you can never please everybody, and rookies do make mistakes, but we can put all that to one side as he achieved the first goal. Which nobody else - not even the vaunted Paul Rowley and his seasoned Leigh team - did.

But when it came to part 2 - the MPG - Lowes fell short. A coach stands or falls by his decisions, and the way i saw it, on the day, taking everything into account, there was a way that we could and maybe should have won, but we were unable to. Everyone has their own opinions but to me, several of Lowes' decisions contributed to our being unable to punish a poor and desperate Wakefield side, in strife, and missing some decent players.
a) his perseverance with Siejka. A decent scrum half could have won us the game if he had got as much ball in as much good field position as Siejka had.
b) he chose the squad he believed would do the job, and would have taken the credit had we won, but as we lost, he carries the can. The fears voiced by many of dropping pace from the team, playing players out of position, wasting a bench spot with Lauaki, can all be viewed as sadly well-founded.

Even then, I suspect that the Lee Gaskell that took the division by storm, had he been available, would have won us the game. It's harsh to blame Lowes for picking him, but then I don't know what he knew about his sharpness and readiness, and maybe that was not the right decision either, as he was a pale shadow of what he can be.

And even after all that, I think maybe his craziest decision of the season was to tell Addy to go for 2 points with that kick. That was Lowes running scared and trying not to lose. He lost fait in his team, and decided that we couldn't score a winning try, so chose to try to tie the scores. The death or glory play on was the only option, for me, and I still can't believe he did it, letting the game fizzle out like it did. If I had been Purtell I would have ignored Lowes and got the kick for touch taken before Lowes could do anything about it.

Agree with you there FA. The problem is there are many ways of looking at yesterday. I too was concerned that with Nielsen and Blythe we had absolutely no pace. I would have had Clare on the wing but there is also the argument that Shaw should have been persevered with as a winger as his kicking is terrific.

I have tried to stick up a little for Siejka but agree that he was anonymous yesterday. At half time I said to a friend we should move Malaney to SH but then realised we had no obvious cover at FB. This then prompted the question why Clare or Shaw wasn't on the wing. With GOB now signed by Salford we can forget about that option.
Jimmy was probably stuck regarding the halves. Gaskel probably wasn't fully fit both physically and mentally and Siejka I will now admit is poor so dropping both would have had the fans in disbelief.

It wasn't just Siejka and that kick that lost us the game. Our props are average at best - all 4 of them. Grafters maybe but quality - no. Did we lose out on promotion due to yesterday - No. Yesterday capped a poor season for me.
Far too many average players signed and then seemingly discarded with no reason. Very poor signing policy!
Four players brought in at the last minute to give us more strength for the promotion push and only one played yesterday. If they are not good enough then why sign them and be stuck with them?

Yesterday was a disappointing icing on a very badly mixed and prepared cake produced by someone who appears to lack the skills to choose the right ingredients and struggled to mix them properly at the right times.
Next season we need less ingredients but of better quality and get someone in who has baked a cake properly before - or at least has done the training and is better prepared.

Has Mary Berry even seen a game of RL?

I'm not a Bradford fan but I don't think some of you realise how lucky you are.

You have a coach who has a winning mentality, has an authentic connection to the club and would give his life to see the glory days come back again.

After a huge transition of players and taking over after threats of administration, Lowes has brought stability, secured the signatures of quality players and made you peak at the right time of the season. More importantly, he seems commited to a long term plan of progression for the club.

Both Jimmy, and you - the fans- are frustrated right now but when you put all this is perspective and realise the odds you face in getting promoted I think you'll relaise how grateful you all are to have him as your coach. He was wrong to say what he did yesterday, but there are fans who are crying out for their coaches to speak truthfully and say what they are thinking.

His rant has made the loss seem 100x worse than what it really is. Had he gone on TV and said something like "Disappointed to lose. Wakefield deserved to win. We've achieved more than most expected us to this year though. We'll learn from this and have a better chance next year". I suspect none of you would be talking about this. Think of the positives, you beat Salford convincingly and also Leigh at their place. You're in a batter position to gain promotion next year now you have experience and more settled squad.

Put things in perspective!

Come on Pete that's not fair to Buffoons.

I agree with the earlier bit, however with under three minutes left and remember we'd barely worked a 'proper' try all game, why would he, or for that matter why do you, think we might have scored on that [more or less] final play? Despite a reasonable share of decent possession, and quick PTBs, we'd not shown sufficient guile to break their line all game, so I can see it maybe seemed the better option. Though history and 20/20 hindsight decrees otherwise.

I have to admit, my thoughts at the game were more that if he kicked it we'd then have to receive the kick off and then spend the final minute defending under our posts..

We had to try and square the game up with so little time on the clock, can you imagine the thread on here if we'd run it and then dropped the ball on the 2nd tackle. Everyone would have been convinced that we should have gone for goal.

you're right. Everyone remembers 'Shoulda taken the two,Kev!'

Addy didn't want to go for goal he was asked if he felt confident and wasn't that's what Purtell was saying too Walker.

Exactly my thoughts.

It's what I was shouting for.

You are jimmy lowes and I claim my £5

Anyone still got the T-shirt? I thought taking the 2 was the best option TBH. I know Sir Kev wouldn't have thought twice about it. Live and learn you see. Just a pity you didn't really turn up on the day.

]


Sorry pal with respect & I am sure you are meaning well but you don't have a clue.

Saturdays rant was the latest in a long line of embarrassing petulant outbursts. Yes every supporter wants a coach with passion and not a yes man who says what the authorities want to hear, but they don't want there coach to offer to fight them at full time either !

Have we peaked at the right time of the season ? Lost twice to Halifax, 3 second half hammerings and couldn't twice beat the worst team that super league will probably see for a long time. Not what I call peaking.

Has Lowes brought stability ? Not sure how stable the players feel when week after week they see there team mates shipped out because they had a fall out with the coach or never even got to pull a shirt on.

And finally we are definitely not in a better position to gain promotion next year. We have already heard cuts will have to be made and with Halifax strengthening, Sheffield going full time & Leigh signing who the hell they like things are most definitely gonna be a whole lot tougher next season to even reach this position, add to that Wakefield can't possibly as poor as the were this year.