Just got in and seen the extended highlights on the Super League show.

Foster's first try = forward pass and in touch before grounding.

Sykes sin bin = one of the most disgraceful calls I've ever seen in over twenty years of watching Rugby League.

Ah Van try = forward pass, shouldn't have been given.

Shenton sin bin = again as I mention with Sykes a very harsh call.

i think silverwood was bad for both teams and saints were the best team. the problem was that it evened up when saints had it in the bag. the game was open for a while, and for the last 25 of the 1st half silverwood killed us. we had to do way too much work as a result of a lobsided penalty count and had to make up points after his interpretation of tries for and against us. the guy is a joke and ruined what was shaping up to be a great open contest.

I agree with that. When he first signalled for a grapple tackle and a sin bin, pretty much everyone was bemused. It didn't take long though to work out that they'd obviously been warned about it. I assume the same case was for the two Saints blokes in the second half, as the offences alone didn't warrant a yellow card. Had it been on the telly, I suspect nobody would be complaining about those calls, as we would have heard the referee issue the warnings.

The first two tries IMO were contentious. First one was forward, second one I thought momentum had stopped and should have been called held up, before it was grounded. But at the end of the day a 12 point Saints win was about right for the game, so no real complaints from me.

Our finishing really needs to improve. Our kicking game is also bloody rubbish most of the time. The odd kick here and there that sets up a try isn't good enough when every other kick goes straight into the hands of the winger.

That post is so reasonable you should be supporting someone else.

Nail.

Head.


Yep. never quite understood how stating facts was ever "an excuse". In fact, the general standard we've reached so far this season has been a fair bit better than I could have hoped. The stirring defence against Cas being a highlight. That's just over a week ago, and they were effectively top, and unbeaten.

But I do understand that they are "just Cas" so we have an inherent right to win, and we are Bradford so we have a divine right to finish top two.



Look, the first thing you aim to do is to create a team which steadily improves to the extent that after a year or two it becomes a genuine top 4 contender. Then you hope, against hope, that you get lucky enough with your personnel that it becomes one of the best teams of the era and hoovers up some pots.

Then there are the people who give it a few short weeks, and then whinge that we aren't beating everyone or playing rugby like the immortals. Sack everyone.

Weird.

Better late than never but.........Fridays game was a decent watch I thought, the first 20 mins was none stop. We were lacking in the final 3rd when it came to putting points on the board and I'm not sure if that was credit to ST's defence or criticism of our attacking options.

Positives - We didn't collapse and give in like we would have last year. Platty and Elima's defence. Ainscough being peppered with kicks all night and coming up with answers every time.

Negatives - Lack of creativity (think this will come as the season goes on) Silverwood (for both teams) That kick that was 2 yards wide that got given and Blinkered Bradford fans (I'm starting to think about sitting with the home fans at away games because the amount of bickering and moaning that goes on from the older generation of fans is ridiculous. One woman sat near me friday saw everything that saints did wrong, every pass they threw was forward, silverwood was not fit to be waterboy bla bla bla then when it was bulls knocking on or throwing forwards she "couldn't see that from where she was"icon_wink.gif

Overall I personally am very happy with the start to the season especially comparing it to how we finished last year.

Most of my view has been covered really:

Disappointing, yes, losing always is - that's life as a supporter for you.

Expected to win? No, not really.

To use the old cliche - there were positives to take from there certainly. The defence certainly looks to be improving, which may sound a strange comment after conceding 28 points, but some generous calls and the sin binning accounted for 4 of those tries IMO.

As others have said, we're probably about where we'd expect.

Add in the fact we're getting some pretty tough games (especially away) out of the way.

A finish in 5-8 place and I'll be happy - then build again the following year......and again......and again......it's a long term project.

That said, toward the end of the season I'd have money on us rolling over some of the top 4/5.

I know it's been said, but it's worth repeating. Platt & Elima were absolutely fantastic on Friday night. Platt's tackle early doors when it looks like Saints had scored was second to none. Managed to hit the guy hard enough to spin him around so that he landed on his back and then stopped him from grounding the ball (as there was no way he could have stopped him getting over the line at that point). As far as Oli goes, at times I thought we had 3 of him on the field. He seemed to be everywhere.

I thought you looked decent on Friday night, certainly the best I've seen you for a few years and that includes a winning performance and Knowsley Road two years ago.

That was easily the best we've played at our temporary home too and it was a pretty even game.

Definitely moving in the right direction as a club from what I can see.

I've heard that from other saints fans that aside from the Leeds match, that was their best performance so far

The people I have the highest regard for are those of us that, for want of another phrase, give an honest appraisal of where we are without gloss or tarnish.

Because I have to say that as much as endless negativity is tiresome, I find the flipside really sodding annoying. People scampering on moonbeams telling us we would beat Saints weren't dealing with reality. A narrow loss and encouraging performance is as much as we could have hoped for and I'm pleased by the result.

Maybe, but we're still not sufficiently drilled yet to take advantage are we? It's going to take time. The fact that we didn't get stuffed is already an improvement on last year. I can see we're going in the right direction broadly speaking and that's enough for me.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

It was our best performance at Widnes, yes, and by a considerable distance too. But we performed well at Salford, which was fairly easy as Salford were crap at that time, and apparently we performed well in France also. We performed well in the second half against Wigan at Magic and came within a goal kick of beating them. Snatching a draw was a good result for us, especially with our halfback problems. However, we have been dire at Widnes. So although our performance wasn't brilliant, it was an improvement on what had gone before at Widnes and that is what everyone was hoping for. The Leeds match stands out as being an example of what we can look like when things go very well. Of course Saints fans are all hoping that we will look a lot better than we did at Leeds later in the season!