I think that was a useful exercise as it demonstrated how poor we are compared to the worst of the SL teams. I didn't expect any Championship team to have an easy ride but that was shockingly bad and I'm not easily shocked. Wakey looked to be on fire in the first half and seemed to be almost faultless. With a bit more care the margin would have been wider.

Just got back. That first ten, fifteen minutes or so was hard to watch. We were out enthused by Wakefield's pack, and after Gaskell went off we just fell to bits. We began defending like turnstiles, leaving gaps everywhere and falling off tackles. Going forward, we lacked game management, and our kicking game was terrible. Who was it that didn't find touch on the penalty? Unforgiveable.

Second half we looked ok until that lengthy injury delay. It allowed Wakefield to regroup, calm themselves down and they looked much better than us after that. Two of their tries came directly of Mullally just bumping our would-be tackler off the ball to break the line. As for Tim Smith, the guy could've played with a dinner suit on, such was his freedom and lack of pressure. Was he even tackled, all game? Just not good enough defensively.

Just curious. Who's this strongest 17 loses should have put out? Henry and mendeika/shaw are only obvious omissions I can see.

Thought we were struggling with speed of ruck anyway but when Gaskell went off we really struggled to regroup. First 30 mins were a disaster. We regrouped a bit after that and pretty much matched wakes for remainder of match.
Key now is when players that were missing return. Mullaney and Nielsen should be ok for next week but Gaskell is big worry.

A useful exercise? Really?

That is what pre season friendlies are for. Not the biggest game we have had in years.

What a ridiculous thing to say.

Players who we thought were decent players were made to look like mediocre championship players. We had a problem when a tubby Lee Smith started to look head and shoulders above ours. Most of their players who I previously thought were average looked really enthusiastic.
They could have warned us they were going to try really hard today!

Ferres must have nightmares about assembling a 32 man squad with only one decent halfback.
If Jimmy ever says how good Addey is at SH again we can now all point to Super Leagues worst teams half backs and how they had a party out their today. Did they need a shower after the game?

We all thought Sidlow and Clough have been good all year. They were bossed all over the pitch by SL’s worst pack.
I went today expecting us to beat them with pace. They ran through us and around us.

I came away feeling a little nauseous as it is clear that we have been fed too many “bigging up” statements from Jimmy and Steve about "just a poor day at the office" when we have been lucky to beat middle of the table championship teams and we have allowed ourselves to be blinkered to all of those very poor performances because we were constantly told we are a SL team playing in this league. Just wait till the business end and then we will see. Yeh, Right!

We got into the habit of saying every week “they will lift their game and make it a difficult game – it could be a banana skin against teams - that had no chance of a top 4 finish for god’s sake”. We accepted that as the reason for poor performances - other teams really wanted to beat us! – all season. Today a very poor SL team also lifted their game surprisingly and completely humiliated us.

I am not going to crucify Jimmy here but he has to prove himself very quickly in the next 5 games if the club can justify asking top SL prices again next season. He is on the verge of losing all credibility with fans who loved him as a player.
We may still win 4 more games or even win the £1m game but I am struggling to see us beating more than Fax now which will see us finish 6th.

I think Jimmy should be given his second year but I am bitterly disappointed in our woeful defence with Karl at the club and a seemingly lack of ability to get a team up for a game the way Wakey were today.

I will put these questions to everyone now:

Would you swap the two coaches from today’s match if you could?
Have you – like myself, re-evaluated the quality of many of our players out there today and may not look at them in as high a standard as we thought they were?
Assuming we stay down, will you now be unhappy to pay for a very expensive ST and rather choose your games wisely next year against all those teams who will lift their game and be a possible banana skin?

If the answer is yes to all three, Mr Green and Ferres have a big problem on their hands.

Time for a pint now. No, Time for a few pints and dream of Thrashing Salford, Widnes, Hull KR and Leigh and making this post completely pointless.

Just been watching the game back on SKY. Gaskell had a really nasty collision with the post for Wakefield's second try and then immediately went off. Looked bad.

Lowes does not deserve a second year, unless we get promoted (which after today is about as likely as Elvis recording a duet with Cilla Black).

Agreed. It came across much better when I said it to my brother on leaving the ground..... I think that sardonic doesn't work the same here.

Agree here. His job was to get us up at first time of asking and all signs point towards him failing (barring a miracle). I've questioned some tactics and squad selection but given it mainly a pass as "we might come good in the 8s" - well today we didn't. If we stay in the Championship, nothing this season or elsewhere in his coaching career says to me he can get us up next year. Lowes has 5 games to save his job IMO.

Today just goes to show the difference in class between the very worst of superleague, which we have been all season, and the top of the championship. The players you have, bar maybe a couple at best, are playing at that level for a reason. They are players who either got you relegated last season (below a Wakefield side that before this season kicked off we all thought was worse on paper than this one), have dropped down as they haven't been able to get a top flight club for a reason or have never played successfully at the higher level. It is easy to get carried away when you are beating inferior part-time sides most weeks but the reality is this country has few real quality players and not enough regular intensity below the elite level to prepare for the step up and most of the better players are already in the top flight. As a club Wakefield don't deserve to survive this year due to extracting the urine all season but the rules mean we likely will as there just isn't anybody good enough to replace us, including Leigh. That is a worry for the depth of RL in this country as much as anything else.

Under the current system the championship is a pointless 23 game preseason which offers no preparation for the middle 8's in terms of speed and intensity.

Very disappointing afternoon both on and off the pitch for me and my family.

We went into the game as slight underdogs and if I'm honest I suspected Wakefield might find a performance today. But I also expected us to come and really put a big effort in and make a real game of it. That unfortunately wasn't the case, the 1st half really was woeful and we made Wakefield look like SL champions. I can't remember anyone once putting T Smith under any sort kick pressure, he had an eternity of time with the ball in hand and he punished. Our kicking game was woeful without Gaskell pulling the strings and the penalty by Siejka that didn't find touch was just pure laziness.

Credit to Wakefield, they played us off the park today and showed we'll need to work a hell of a lot harder if we want to pick up the victories required against SL opposition. Praying that Gaskell isn't season ending otherwise sadly I fear the dream is over for 2015.

Re off the field disappointment was the racist chanting by a group of Wakefield fans, there is no place for that in our game. I expect there might be some repocussions for the club, particularly if it was picked up by the Sky microphones.

Also whilst I expect to hear the odd bit of swearing here and there at a rugby match it was OTT today. I do wish our fans would drop the 'you're all one family song' too as it really doesn't do us any favours. Even when I went for a HT slash I had to put up with some popped up numpty in a Wakefield shirt goading Bulls fans. I'll have to think twice about taking my family back to Belle Vue if this is accepted behaviour at their ground.

See I sort of agree with the sentiment, but I can't fully. If we'd played at our absolute best today and you'd put 40 past us I'd say fair cop to this but the Bulls didn't turn up - and similarly if you put 40 past Leigh next week. The difference between the best in the Championship and SL isn't just down to just one game, we can only really decide that in about 7 weeks time when the full system takes it course . Of course there is a huge chance you will be proved entirely correct.

Before todays game I hoped that Brian Smith could no longer weave his magic as he did with us in '96.

I also hoped Anthony Mullally wouldn't be as good as he was while playing on loan for us...

Didn't take long to have my (our) hopes and dreams shattered there did it?!

That was a definite case of Championship style rugby versus SL style - a very wide gap.

Brain Smith has his team playing with pace, power and commitment, half back pairings took us apart and Mullally repeatedly smashed though out line ...

There were some strange selection decisions today and it cost us dearly - we appear to be a one man team when we lose Gaskell - and we cannot afford to be at this stage...

Bitterly disappointing day - and I have to say - full credit to Brian Smith - his team were superb today and he definitely hasn't lost his touch.

I am already convinced we won't gain promotion - there is more work to do yet - and maybe some tough decisions to be made at the top!

And yes Bully Boxer - on top of all that - you are correct about some of the "banter"