first time at the reserves and at Wilderspool for me.

Thought the reserves played really well after they got up and running towardst the end of the first 10 minutes. Almost as if they asked Leeds the question of "what have you got?" before replying with a beefy "thats not good enough, sorry." Two good tries by McCarthy at the end of the half didnt flatter them at all i dont think.

You are right about Penny, he did not play at all well in my opinion. He just stood out on the wing and it was as if he expected the ball to go all the way out to him every time, and when it didnt he never looked as though he wanted to get into the game. Its alll well and good putting a big slap on to an onrushing player, but it wasnt a tackle that stopped the big Leeds player. Penny was also at fault for Leeds' try towards the end of the game. Why does he always run back into the line with his back to the play? And what is with his little skip before going in to take a tackle? Surely he would do better if he just ran full pelt into the onrushing defence? Momentum might take him somewhere and he would be far more likely to break through the tackle than stopping, doing an irish jig and then getting ten bells knocked out of him?!

Anyway, the one thing that I really did like to see yesterday was McCarthy absolutely itching to get back into the game after he took a knock in the second half. He kept looking up into the stand and almost begging to go back on. Thats the sort of desire you want to see from a group of youngsters in any sport. Thought he played really well and commanded the play well at times in the first half.

(sorry if timings arent right in some of that. Written from memory the day after and all)

There was actually a couple of occasions when I thought he'd messed that up. I'm sure he wiped the tackle count clean, then called last tackle on the next play.

One of the most pleasing aspects for me, was the tracking back right at the end to stop Leeds scoring, even with the game won.

Absolutely tremendous performance from the guys yesterday. showed all the heart and passion our current team lacks. McCarthy has a huge future ahead of him, would not be surprised at all to see him in the 17 within 3 weeks, although I think he would benefit tremendously from a year out on loan somewhere. The young lad who played at 7 was also fantastic, Blythe had a slow first half but showed his talent in the second half. I'm expecting big things from these lads this year and think we could see more than 2 or 3 of them step up.

enjoy...but normal service resumed at HJ !!!

Wilderspool might be looking at bit tatty and rusty in places but now all the overgrowth has been cut back, it actually looks as good if not better than some current SL grounds!

Good performance from the reserves, standouts for me were Cooper, McCarthy and Blythe.

Penny gets some stick and did spill one towering, wind-assisted kick but he didn't receive one pass during the game (I think the other winger only got two) and did put in some decent kick-returns and a couple of decent hits as well. It's almost as though some people want him to fail. He scored 4 tries last week - barely a mention. No passes to him this week and everyone's on his back again.

Any kind soul let me know how they got on.

Ta.

they won 26-16.

shouldn't have been that close to be honest though... Warrington dominated throughout

Warrington with some strong and hard hitting defence, not bad on attack but we needed to work from deep quite a bit.

The ref kept Bradford in it really with the penalty count going hugely in their favour.

couldn't agree more!

I'd recommend anybody to go down and watch both the Acadamy and Reserves this year.....the club is putting in some really solid foundations.

I've been particularly impressed with the way young Gareth O'Brien is steering the ship (for both Acadamy and Reserve team). Reminds me very much of a young Lee Briers in that he has a slight frame, superb distribution and quality kicking game..........keep healthy young man!