How many of those playing yesterday are likely to be in your first choice 13? I wasn't sure but guessed at about 4/5 with people like Ah Van, Phelps, Winterstein and Cahill.

I was sat in the widnes stand with my family today.... There was a bit in the second half when williams jumped up and caught a ball in the air, only to be hit hard... when he got up and played the ball he fell back down to the floor and held his shoulder.... at this point LOADS of Widnes fans all jumped up and started cheering a laughing. with one bloke in his 40's, 2 rows infront of us (who was with his 3 kids),shouted "lets hope the wire scumbag has broke his f*****g neck)

classy.... never come across that before !

More like 8 or 9 'guaranteed' starters. We have the likes of Brown, Briscoe, Cross, Hanbury, Pickersgill, O'Carroll, Clarke and White to come in who will make up the match day 17. Craven is turning into a good player as shown by his 2 try's and has the ability to cover the halves, full back and hooker. The rest of the lads on show will be bench/fringe players but IMO we need a centre and a back rower to stand any chance of a move away from the basement area this season. We're still a newish side and hopefully the team will gel more in the second season in the absence of more 'big name signings'.



Wouldn't condone any of that but there is a diffrerence cheering a big hit and an opposition player feeling the effects of the knock rather than jeering a player who is lay motionless on the ground with who knows what type of injury he has!

Also i thought that young ref had a good game. he seemed to get the majority of the decisions correct... Pulling wire back from the full length of the field try was an odd one though....

The stick he got off the widnes fans was unbelievable though...for a friendly as well... every time he gave a decision to wire, they were foaming at the mouth.... ive never heard so many ginger related insults in my life.

The one thing that i will take away with me from the game was the number of times i heard up to 100 (probably more) people shout FOOOOOOOOOOOORWARD in unison... They have deffo been practicing that one for next season. They even made the saints fans look conservative in their appealing, and THAT takes some doing.

Funny how the more trophies you win the more you get catcalled, booed and jeered by the opposition.

Hmmm, does that translate to catcalling an 18 year old kid for dropping a high bomb....not sure how successful he's been. Anyhoo, enjoy the catcalling, it shows success has come your way..........up until the last few years it must have been a little dull listening to the polite applause that came your way......



Too roo folks, roll on the season proper!

Was very impressed by our youngsters and yours by that. Not a true reflection in how the seasons going to go. Let's be honest, we all know if both sides had their strongest 17 out, you'd win every time by 40+ really. However we wouldn't be playing you every game.

I went yesterday to really see with injuries, how our strength in depth was against a very mixed warrington team.

Our starting 17 for me would be

Briscoe
Ah van
Phelps
Marsh
ISa
Brown
Hanbury
Cross
White
Pickersgill
Allen
Winterstein
Cahill

Ocarroll
Davies
Clarke
Mellor/craven

1,6,7,8,9,10,14 and 16 didn't play yesterday.

2,3 and 13 never started and usually would.

With hanbury, brown, briscoe and phelps we have some very good players, our problem is going to get them playing all at the same time. Our full squad IMO can best anybody like cas, London, Salford, Wakefield on the day.

We're a long way off however from challenging you boys at the top. 4/5 significant signings needed next year. Well done yesterday, brought over 1000 fans which was impressive. I'd have Obrien back in a heart beat also.

The ref played 3 years worth of rules yesterday how anyone can say he had a good game is completely beyond me!

Friendlies early doors are basically young lads wanting to throw it about / put it about and make an impression Stokes ruined that basically quite early on.

Biggest difference in the two sides was just how secure Wire looked even after any half break. At times big gaps just appeared in the Widnes line that where punished without question. The other end looked far more set and organised which is a credit to youth and also the experienced lads that turned out.

IMO our youngsters were brilliant yesterday, a few let me down with expectations, Danny bridge for me was immense! Currie had a solid game same did laithewaite, Dwyer and saltonstall werent as impressive as I'd hope but both looked dangerous and to get a result against a near full strength Widnes team is a massive boosts for the lads

Read my other post.

I've give your lads credit but a near full strength widnes side? Get a grip

You had like 5-6 players that didn't play...thats near full strength we had I think 5 regular first teamers in Riley, coops, carvs, higham and wood on paper your side should have won

A weakened Wire team is going to be stronger than a weakened Widnes side. Goes without saying for numerous reasons. Would be interesting to see number of SL games played in between the two sides tbh.

Our starting 1,6,7 and 9 probably had less than 30 SL games between them etc. That lack of an organiser certainly showed too.

The Widnes side arguably reflected our likely SL side more but was still a very mixed 13 on the pitch throughout.