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.

Yet again, FFS, read my post, I named At least 8 of our starting 17 that didn't play yesterday.

Doesn't really work though when we were missing 14 - Hodgson, Chris Bridge, Atkins, Joel Monaghan, Briers, Myler, Morley, Michael Monaghan, Waterhouse, Westwood, Harrison, Grix, Ratchford, Hill.

It shows that putting the time, effort and money into youth development does work and provides great strength in depth.

don't get me wrong you've upped your game immensely in that department and hopefully for the game it will pay immense dividends. But lets face it for the amount of time spent in Super League Warrington have hardly led the charge here!

We had 6/7 of our home grown lads playing yesterday who by and large will get regular game time this season. Granted you had a lot of young lads out there who were impressive but when the names off your list, of which I'd say only one at best is home grown are available, how much gametime will the younger lads get?

Not a tremendous amount next season - one of the awkward side effects from having a team that was about 20 minutes away doing the double. As players retire, these will replace them. Evolution.

Well yes, that's what it should be about but in reality, after all this time in SL I'd have thought your 17 would include a lot more of your academy products. I'd say 4/5 of your regular 17 are home grown? We're in the position of having to play them along with a greater percentage of 'signings' due to our recent history.

We've put a lot of effort into youth ourselves and we have 1st team regulars who are youth development products and that's after not having the 'pick' of the youth in the game due to being out of SL for so long.

Oh, also I'd say out of Listers list of non starters for you, I'd say there were just as many Widnes academy players as there were Wire !

Yet again you missed my point. I was never contesting the fact ho many players you were missing? I was contesting the fact that it WAS NOT near a fully fit widnes side that you beat. Obviously we had a mix of first team players in there but far far from our starting team.