Love this, at the start of the season, everyone was tipping Salford to finish bottom, saying they hadn't recruited very well, inexperienced coach, marwan interfering etc... Now you're saying they should be doing better? They've pushed Wigan all the way in both games, lost in the last second against Warrington, were the only team to beat Widnes in the opening 8 games. The only games they've not really turned up in, were both Hulls away, Wakefield away and Catalans at home. Without the points deduction they'd be 7th. Even with the points deduction they could still very well make the top 8.

When you say "with the money they've spent", this year, they are operating on a much reduced salary cap due to the ongoing investigation, some saying they are up to £250k under the maximum cap for this year. And yes, Tim Sheens isn't Salford's head coach, never has been. It's Ian Watson, and he's doing a great job.

Sorry, I forgot about our win at KR

, We were still struggling badly and it's still unbelievable that we are on the brink of the top 8, considering where we were when Chester came in.
I was one of many detractors who thought we would be screwed but, very, very happily proved wrong.
The point still stands, that he has done an absolutely remarkable job with a team that was tailed off last in 2015 and wre the bookies favourites to come bottom this season.

Your profile and entire posting history is a scandal.

See you in Perpignan on July 2nd.

James Webster

Any coach that has to work with no youth coming through, their best player being crocked for 90% of the season, see odious people like Ben Cockayne on a daily basis, have a bitter chairman barking one-eyed "must beat Hull" orders at them all year and have Jameh Peacock make all the important decisions for you, deserves to be up there. Awful conditions.

Keep going James.

Radders has done a fantastic job this season so far
I bet plenty of FC fans are squirming from some of their rants about sacking him in recent seasons

What do fans know eh?

I think each and every one of us is eating humble pie (including myself), with some having a bigger portion than others. You'd have struggled to find a fan this time last year that wouldn't have swapped him for another coach given the chance.

Some fans overstepped the line massively in their personal remarks about him. Most put forward their concerns and disappointment, but nobody was happy.

With hindsight, Radford had a hell of a task when he took over. Apathy amongst the fans after being crap for 6/7 seasons was rife, nobody believed he was the man for the job after such a short tenure as an assistant, and the player roster represented one of the worst cases of salary cap mismanagement we've seen at the club.

But credit to him, he's turned it around. The squad/salary cap issues have taken the 2/3 seasons to weed out, recruitment has been very good, morale seems at an all time high and we're playing some decent rugby. I hope it continues as long as possible, but there's a long way to go yet before any silverware gets handed out.

never mind last year, wasn't there a 'Radford out' banner after the Widnes game?
There was certainly lots of teeth gnashing and whining over on the Hull board.

I hope when he leads them out at OT he sticks 2 fingers up at those who have been on his case for what seems like years, some of it pretty nasty and personal from memory.

Nope. I think you're making that up. I was at the game & didn't see or hear about that. We came into the Widnes game following narrow defeats to Cas & Wigan, so not really reason for anyone to create a home made banner to take to Widnes.



It was a pretty terrible performance and people were rightly disappointed about the manner of the defeat. Ironically, it seemed to kick start our season. "Teeth gnashing & whining" is a bit over the top as usual, maybe one or two of the usual suspects, most were level headed, realised it was very early in the year and in the previous 4 games we'd done alright.



He'll metaphorically stick two fingers up at them just by getting there.

You're right, some of the comments about Radford, albeit from a very small handful of known idiots on our board, completely crossed the line. Personal abuse, made up allegations of him being a bully to the younger players, and even a childish online petition signed by about 100 people. It's sad that people felt it necessary to lower themselves to such levels.

That petition was an absolute cringe-fest!, same as when someone on one of our facebook groups did one

this could be the banner i was thinking off, i apologise if i have my timelines mixed up