“@Patty_AhVan: Pumped 4 last game at odsal”

To be honest I thought Cas did put in the effort, they just weren't very good, especially on defence but with probably too much desperation and nowhere near enough steadiness in attack. FC were a class above in both areas.

You might think that could be a similar story today but I can't see Cru defending anything like as well as Hull did. Mind we don't have anyone as effective as Rangi Chase in attack either.............

Shaun Ainscough named to start on left wing. No Rayner. Walker is on bench

We are winning, but no one seems too bothered about this game on here.

what was final score then af as on twitter crusaders are saying 48-24 but bbc are saying 48-18?

Briggs MoM by a country mile. He was fantastic. He's got some potential.

T'was 48-24

Low on quality RL game but nice to see the team score a few points at Odsal.

Sykes in defence was great. Unorthodox with about 50% of his tackles but got the job done.

O'Brien played well, maybe not quite MoM performance but I can see why he got it. He has now played 3 SL games in a row and improved with each one. Perhaps a missed opportunity for Potter to give another of our youngsters a few games in the first team. And Ah Van with his losing the ball in the tackle 3 times on the bounce - did we not have any way of getting someone else on the wing from that squad instead of him?

I thought that the 400 or so Crusaders supporters were a credit to the players and club today.

It was heartwarming to see so many supporters who were all very vocal from start to finish and to see the Rooley Lane end draped up with the numerous Welsh national flags.

The game in question felt flat and really did mirror the end of season billing as a shoot out between two poor sides who have underachieved in 2011.

But for all the negative observations there was some good Rugby League on show at times with Crusaders Tony Martin having free reign down our right hand side edge, in which he set up two tries for Stuart Reardon via some truly clinical intricate passing before he went over for a try himself in the final seconds and the emergence of Adam O'Brien (who once again put in another solid performance and was unlucky not to score on more than one occasion).

What really killed the game as a contest was Ben Flowers rush of blood to the head which saw him sit down for ten crucial minutes (he stopped Ainscough from taking a quick tap on the 20m by holding him back in clear view of all three officials) because during his spell in the bin, Bradford ran in two back to back tries to extend the lead to twenty points (30-10) and any hopes of a Crusaders comeback were firmly extinguished when following a schmozzle in the Bulls in goal area Widnes bound Pattrick Ah Van picked up the ball to go over from 90m out leaving the sprinting Crusaders players for dust.

I said at the time when it was announced that he would leave Odsal that he would move on to better things with his new club and still stand by that view backed up by his twenty point haul today (although the less said about those first three carries).

Special mentions for Adam O'Brien (got the supporters MOM), Kyle Briggs (was my MOM), Shaun Ainscough and Andy Lynch (those rumours of a big money move to the KC stadium were certainly doing the rounds in the press box) who all gave the healthy crowd something to be happy about.

All in all a low quality game of Rugby League that featured thirteen tries and plenty of suspect defending but then it was always going to be a high scoring fixture when you take into account that both sides have been conceding 30+ pts a game.

Couldn't agree more Mick, I thought they were a credit to their team and Rugby League in Wales.

In fact I think I'm going to pop over to the Crusaders board and say so.

Agreed with your other points too in the main - a poor quality game that felt strangely flat, despite there actually being some good tries scored.

Ah Van took his try very well but I don't think he did much else. Early doors, him and Paul Johnson were having a knock on competition.

Briggs stood up very well for me today and I was listening to Radio Leeds on the way home and O'Brien played on after breaking his nose. Big respect, especially as the performance didn't drop after he did it. Lynch was our main prop although Kopczak actually took the ball in a lot harder than I've seen him do recently. It was nice to see O'Brien feed Kopczak and then Burgess some ball. Our future front row on show and they worked well.

Not a fantastic show but it was nice to see us get the biggest score at Odsal this year and to end with a convincing win. I still think we attack too flat and that some forwards don't run on to the ball as they should. Taking the ball stood still won't gain us too many yards.

It's a shame I didn't take any pictures on my phone of them at the end all cheering and clapping the players efforts.

The most pleasing thing about today is that before kick off when talking to Mick Potter he said that the players have really tried hard the past two weeks to work on the communication skill aspect of their game and while the lack of focus was still pretty noticeable with the cheap penalties and errors, you could see things starting to tick with the players openingly communicating and orchestrating the set plays (see Kearneys first try as a prime example - he called for that crossfield chip kick on the 4th tackle).

I know it's starting to sound like a broken record but I really do have renewed optimism ahead of 2012 and the arrival of Lulia, Purtell, Gale and Sammut to bolster the backline can only increase my faith in the club.

I just hope it has the same effect on the 6,000+ supporters who have still to pledge.