The fitness is a concern for me. After 20mins we looked knackered. We didn't make that first period tell but even if Gill hadn't knocked on from Patton's kick the warning signs were there. Sheffield were defending the swamp end by the Coral Stand (I'm sure the track isn't helping the drainage - the pitch is an absolute disgrace) yet by the end of the first half they were making 60-70m per set. We were lucky to make 20-30m when we came out of that end. Taking the ball stood still and running across field played into their hands and it showed just how out of condition the forwards are. Too often they shirked the tough carries.

Defensively it was just as bad. There was no line speed at all. Sheffield players ran harder and straighter and made 10m per carry at least. We couldn't get up or back in time (fitness) and the contact was pitifully weak. Looking at Liam Kirk he looked way better than he did when he was with us. What's going on?

Not sure what tactics were employed but the kicking game wasn't helped by the passive defence. I agree about going for the 2 points. In the early part of the second period we never once got out of our half yet when we did after 20mins we managed to score. Apart from that we were camped at our end.

When we played into the wind we didn't kick well. The incident where we got a penalty and kicked for touch and it blew backwards 10m was awful. Why not just tap and run? Also handing the ball over on the last tackle simply shouldn't happen. Too often we didn't build pressure.

I think it's clear now that Kear's time at the club is drawing to a close and we do need a change. Too often we put in these crap performances and he goes on about poor attitude. Does he not spot the warning signs in the week leading up to the game? He's been around long enough. The size of some players shows that they're not taking things as seriously as they need to and little things like our continued ability to mess up on kick offs shows that we're not professional enough.

The end of last season we turned in a bunch of below par performances and some said that it would be different this year as some players had been weeded out. Well yesterday showed that we're still not good enough and without a change we'll be around 4th or 5th again.

4th or 5th





Lets be fair you are not up there with fax, batley and york maybe competing for 6th if your lucky with widnes

Kear talked the big talk after our defeat at Batley at the end of last season.
If he thinks this squad can genuinely push for promotion then he's deluded.

And yeah we'll be lucky to get 4th or 5th at this rate. Very lucky.

I mentioned the state of the pitch a few weeks ago and was told by some on here that the pitch was fine and it was only the track around and the corners. Anyone there yesterday knows the real deal.

On the decision to take the two. The penalty was awarded right in front of me and the majority of the players called for two on the pitch. Maybe kear with all those years of experience should have known better but the players called that one.

Sheffield were aggressive in defence whereas we let them run at us and lacked real goforward essential in those conditions

Well we can beat any of those "on our day". It's just that we'll follow it up by losing to one of the bottom three and carry on like that all season. 4th-6th sounds pretty fair IMO.

Not sure about the pitch being fine but it didn't look quite as bad versus Leeds due to there being a dry spell beforehand. If we get a bit of rain it looks absolutely horrendous, particularly the Coral Stand end. I saw a bloke walking around sticking a fork in it during halftime yesterday. Not sure it was worth bothering. Looks as if the drainage is knackered.

Think the decision to take the two was a mistake whoever made it. We obviously thought we could grind it out and would get another spell in the Sheffield end. Our powder puff defence and sideways attack meant we wouldn't.

We get takled in to touch on the the last tackle Sheff score before we touch the ball again.

We give a way a penalty after gathering a Sheff kick. Again they score.

Crossley lets the kick off hit his beer gut rather than catch it on the full. Sheff score.

Patten cocks up a short kick off. Sheff score.

Sheff kick 2 pens including one following another balls up of a short restart

All 28 points came on the back of our errors. Every team makes mistakes but you have to be able to defend the next set. Our attitude to want to defend after making a mistake was shocking.

Add that to the complete lack of urgency in attack, what a complete disaster.

I actually think scoring so early was a bad thing. Players thought it was going to be a walk in the park after that

Our ability to take a kickoff seems to have got worse over the past few years. Would love to know how our stats on this basic skill compare with others.

Agree. I think we wrote a cheque for ourselves in talking about wanting to put a score on Sheffield and couldn’t cash that cheque. Sheffield fronted us up and we weee found wanting.

As bullseye mentions the annoying thing is the consistency. Whilst I fully expect us to get 50 put on us by Leigh, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we lose to Leigh by less than a single try and are hailed as valiant losers who will easily turn over barrow if we play like that etc and so on until September.

Spot on that. We're consistently inconsistent. Barrow will be no pushover, they beat Sheffield last weekend. I fully expect Sammut and Ritson to run rings around us if we manage to bounce back versus Leigh.

Sheffield losing to Dewsbury today despite having an extra man for 30mins shows just how bad a result this was.