I thought we played pretty well, great advert for RL. Think u can pick mom out of Sau, Chase, Tomkins and Hanson. Thought Meli was useless as always.however I think we look a lot better coached team than we did! Agree with john wells comment of always playing in 5th gear. I think Widnes have shown us 3 times this year the imPortance of pace. I think this was highlighted by the fact that Widnes lost their bench yet were still able to pick up point.
Quick mention to Sau for putting his hand up and taking that kick! Diss appointed Chase of another back didn't!
Big improvements since I last watched them and loved the game.
Come on Solly!
Ps Tony really annoyed me by saying Sal-ford all match, he must know by now!

Btw disappointed in Hock. Went missing when he could have made a difference!

Fifty-fifty calls didn't go our way. Kevin Brown threw more forward passes than John Elway but only got pulled on one. We failed to capitalise after scoring by gifting an error. Eden seems to be on a different planet. Chase opted for style over substance at crucial times, adding more pressure. Defence was weak out wide as usual.

On the plus side, Mullaney was good, Sau, most of the forwards except Hock who had a quiet one. We looked much better around the ruck both in defence and attack.

This season was always going to be a tough one and there's still time for the team to pull something out of the bag. If you add Locke, BJB, and Sneyd to that side without any other signings and we would be holing-up our problem areas.

Disappointing but I can see slow progress. The team really needs a lift morale wise and need a win to steady nerves. We'll probably go and beat Wigan now...

You can't blame the ref for that!

I don't watch us every week so maybe I'm well off the mark, but Hock to me had the air of a man who is sick of not being utilising to the best of his abilities yet having to drag others along with him (perhaps on the back of his paper rant a few weeks ago as well).

Being very subjective Francis Meli for all the good he was today might as well have been employed as an extra turn style.

Much as it pains me it's a long time since I've seen a limited team like Widnes so well drilled with a brilliant game plan, hats off the Betts as I thought he was made of fail as far as a super league standard coach goes but he appears to be one of the better ones.

Stand out for me again was Sa'u who looks the most enthusiastic and when he really hits the ball up nearly impossible to stop first man up.

It struck me today with Meli on one wing and Gleeson on the other we have weak links on both flanks which a well drilled teal like Widnes exploit with alarming ease.

I'd have about the same amount of confidence in someone with both hands amputated going up to catch a bomb than with Meli. He's a decent finisher and also makes some good yards when he takes up a few hit ups to help out the forwards but he's an absolute liability in defence and has been responsible for us conceding a number of shockingly bad tries this year.

We probably should have won today. Almost every single Widnes try seemed to come off the back of us gifting them possession or from some needless penalty. Whenever we looked like we were getting a handle on the game we seemed to get overexcited and made some stupid error. They made far fewer mistakes than us and that made the difference overall. Can't expect to keep giving the ball to a well drilled side and not concede.

This pretty much sums it up. Got too giddy when in front and coughed up possession which meant we never put them under any sustained pressure.

I'm taking the quote about Eden being on a different planet meant he is playing well?, seems to be one of the few players playing with confidence and seems like he's enjoying himself. I'd stick with Mullaney at scrum half as he looked more creative than Smith has for most of the season and he simply isn't the better full back on current form.

Does anyone have any idea why Sa'u took the sitter kick he missed? Mullaney didn't look to carrying an injury (and kicked the attempt afterwards) so it bewilders me and could have come back to bite us at the death if we'd have closed the game out better. At the very least if he was going to kick he should have clouted it rather than chipping it.

I'd love one of the stato's to work out how many tries have come down Meli's wing or from a mistake by him compared to however many he has fallen over the line to score. It's all right scoring them but when he allow the opposition to score more it's counter productive. Time for me to give one of the youngsters a go, you never know we might unearth a gem.

One thing that did strike me was the call when our player got pole axed, for the ref to judge it was accidental is bewildering as accidental or not it was still high and should have been a penalty to us rather than a Widnes ball.

Agree with the comparisons between Brown and Elway as some of his 'line balls' we nothing short of blatant forward passes, how professional refs and linesmen fail to see that is beyond me and shows that not only is the class of player different in SL compared to the NRL but also the quality of the officials.

If you watch the video you will see him put the whistle to his lips but obviously sucked - players all stop and agree it was an `iffy` try as was the 3 yards pass from Brown late on which led to another try.

I think one flaw with the concept of the whole Magic Weekend idea is the referees obvious instruction to go to the screen as often as possible too add the 'tension' (for tension read nonsensical comments on SKY & people in the crowd spotting the bleeding obvious long before the officials dicking about with the technology on screen do). I really can't see (and would love even the biggest die hard Widnes fan to argue the call) how a high tackle that is accidental is not a penalty, the only difference between that and a deliberate one is that as in the Hull game they should be sent off rather than just spoken too.

We as a game do ourselves no favours when calls like that are missed and tight games are ruined by missing things like blatant forward passes.

as i wigan fan i think you will beat us next thursday.today took too much out of us.dont know what you think but cas look a better side without chase.i don't think he his doing you any good.i have said that wigan are a better balanced team this year without sam,not a better team but better balanced.i have of course been shot down on our board for daring to say such things.

I understand what you mean.

What we need is a HB partner that takes charge and makes the sensible calls. Chase's talent is off the cuff RL, he plainly is not an organiser, and yesterday highlighted it on a number of occasions. He made some bad judgement calls at crucial times. If we had a dominant HB partner that would take that responsibility off him, everyone's a winner. Chase gets to play his natural game at the right time without the burden of organising. Until we get an organiser to partner him, we'll have to put up with his calls. When they go right they are match winners, but when they go wrong they are match killers. So I understand where you're coming from.

Anyone else think our pack made great yards going forward yesterday? I don't think we were kept in our half for one set of six. It was like we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, a lack of confidence and some panic rugby lost it for us - not a lack of effort.