Yet again, the team (and staff) have to take a good look at themselves in the mirror, and think "Did I put a shift in", yesterday. Regrettably, quite a few will see themselves shaking their heads. Despicable, really. As yesterday was the SF of the most prestigious RL competition in the world.

All the good work of the last month, has unravelled in 80 Godforsaken minutes, and we're back to square one, with an in-form Leeds on the horizon, with new injuries, and part 2 of Westwood's suspension to deal with. Friday may not be pretty.

I feel the questioning of Smith's position (on other threads) may be a little "kneejerk", but, the next 3 months are CRUCIAL, off the pitch as well as on. Let's face it, in the 6 and a bit years he's been here, his recruitment has been lacklustre, for a coach of his calibre. Hill and to some extent Ratchford (does Smith know his best position?), are exceptions to the rule. Waterhouse (for me) was not an improvement on Louis Anderson. Sims hasn't let anyone down, and Clark hasn't shown MoS qualities (yet). England's not done it, and don't get me started on The Waste of Skin. Alarm bells should have rung, when he didn't show up for a World Cup, ffs.
Like someone said on another thread, I don't get the "take a punt" on player X. With all due respect to these clubs, we are not Castleford/Wakey/HKR, who are working to a shoestring budget, and have to get their recruitments bang on. Why the hell we signed Wheeler, I'll never know. Stains must've been laughing their heads off, especially with his injury record. Did Smith do it, because he thought Grix and Evans were growing tired of each other's company on the Physio's table, so he brought in Wheeler to pep things up. We knew he was a crock, but we "took a punt", and lo, it came to pass, that someone gave him a hard stare, and he's rolling around in agony. Sheesh we're gullible. It's almost like going into a supermarket's bakery department, seeing them put out all their freshly baked bread which smells gorgeous, and then seeing out of the corner of your eye, a load of Warbies Toastie, that's got 6 hours left, before it goes past it's sell by date, and you can pick it up for 50p. We've got the money to afford the proper stuff, but we're scrimping. We should be shopping at Harrod's. Instead we're shopping at Arkwright's Open All Hours. "Ter....Ter...Tony.....fer, fer, fetch a prop"

Great post Lefty. Thanks for proving to me that I can still smile despite the pain of yesterday!

haha.. "fer fer fetch a prop"

lovely stuff

How many jerks of the knee does Smith get lefty ?

He can't have many left. .... His recruitment is terrible. ...His media sound bites are starting to get right up my nose. ... His treatment of Kevin penny is downright ing perverse. ... the Wheeler experiment has everyone laughing at us, and we've been poor for two solid seasons.

Ive nothing good to say about him today because of yesterdays pitiful pile of ...so maybe not the best time to come on a forum. ...

no doubt someone will tell me what smith won us three years ago and how there is nothing wrong with being the biggest spenders in the league and going four years without winning a ing pot.

If he was sacked right now I couldn't care less. How worse can it get.

Think we get too despondent after a bad performance and too giddy after a good one. I do think the calls for Tony Smith's head are misguided. There were lots of reasons for what happened yesterday, i think certain performances have to be viewed in the light of a)the weather and b) the consequences on the rotation of the injuries to Harrison and Ormsby on what was already a lightweight pack.
The signings for next season look to be quality. Sandow may add something for the run in.
I don't see the signing of Wheeler as an issue. He is unlikely to have cost much and was worth a punt, it's hardly in the Balotelli league!

Just because a player has had injuries in the past doesn't mean they will continue with injury problems,

Remember Nick Fozzard?

This is pretty much exactly how i feel.

Get Cullen in as a player recruiter and give him one of the youth team jobs to keep him through the season.

Well if anyone needed a smile after that dog turd of a performance you've nailed it with that post Lefty.Absolute brilliant not to mention every word being true but why oh why does Smith come out just before the semi with the one statement the the KR players just need to pump them up which was the KR players might just find us too hot to handle?They always come back to bite you on the proverbial.

I agree with you whole heartedly, biscuit. Just not the last bit. I do feel we owe him another chance (though he's using them up, quickly).....sentimental bugger, aren't I?
From what I've surmised from all your previous posts, your a supporter of a similar age to me (45) from a similar time (late 70's/v early 80's), and what have we had to endure, coaching wise
Billy Benyon. I wasn't old enough to take it all in, then
Kevin Ashcroft. In, over his head. As was proved for the rest of his coaching "career"
Widnes Bowden. Just WTF. Disappeared straight away.
Tony Barrow...a poor man's Alex Murphy. For the rest of it, see Kevin Ashcroft
Johnnno. Too green, then got fortunate, with the amount of money Peter Higham allowed him to spend, then yo-yoed for a few years, until that infamous game did him in.
VDV. A HUGE mistake (but he did have good connections)
The less said about Anderson, Plange and (the early days of) Cullen, the better
Cullen (there after) was NEVER going to win anything, despite SJM's investment
Lowes. Just cringeworthy. No more, no less.
Since then, Tony Smith. I think we STILL, owe him some time.

Yes, his recruitment is terrible (on the whole). This could be his last chance.
His media soundbites are terrible. But I think that's "by the by". He's obviously uncomfortable in front of a camera/mic. So I can forgive him that. We can't all be PR wizzkidz.
But I'm in total agreement with you, re his treatment of Penny, this season. I wouldn't treat next door's dog, the way he's treated Penny. He's been praised by the Muppets on Sky. The haters on the South Stand have been relatively quiet, as they have on here. We had a positional problem for Saturday, which Penny could have covered, or other positional changes could have adapted to include Penny. But no. We bring in Turnstile Sickbed Wheeler, and he gets injured (AGAIN). If I was Kevin Penny, I'd forego my loyalty to my hometown club, and try and earn a living where I'm more appreciated. The lad's obviously on some kind of "cooked up" contract, but Smith STILL doesn't want use him (see my first post, this thread, on "taking a punt", but Smith doesn't want to "take a punt, on a punt"

true..know tell me about wheeler..if not lets get rid..believe the accident and emergencies have just started a new rl team send him there

But...it could have worked. It hasn't but no-one has a crystal ball.

never sign a an injury prone player..and more to the point never play one in a semi final at the expense of a fully fit confident and inform individual who could win you that said game..get shut of him

And which fully fit player was this who can play centre? Evans?

Be interesting to see how some of your employers would treat you if you had a bad day or were off sick.