I think king is going to be very good. I can remember watching him at Widnes a season or so ago. He wasn't playing, but he had a ball on the touch line and was flicking it around for fun, until he found someone to pass to. He reminds me of Briers, who also seems to enjoy just having the ball in hand and messing about with it. For these types of players it's all about the ball and so the handling becomes second nature. Atkins is an athlete, but I suspect for him the game is all about running - and remembering to take the ball with him at the same time. Does that make sense ? it does to me anyway.

Remember the pass from King to Atkins in the GF when we were ?10m from the Wigan line? King shaped a flick pass from the side of his body which unfortunately Atkins put down. Not an easy pass, but not too difficult either, and I am sure if the players swapped around, King would have taken it and been over the line. It reminded me of Chris Bridge at his best, where he was able to fashion scoring opportunities for his winger / outside player. He is still only 20 and will surely put on some more muscle over the close season, but I think King is by far the best kid we have had through the youth system since Ben Currie. If you wan't a bit of fun (and it is still there) go to Youtube and look at King's compilation when he was playing for Meltham on pitches with slopes of 10 degrees, or where they had probably just shooed away the sheep to get a game. You can see the ball handling, the swagger, the timing of the pass and the difficulty players had to bring him down close to the line.

My post wasn't aimed at the "hard of understanding".

2 points;
1) Penny was very new to the sport so didn't have the experience that someone like Tomkins had
2) I thought Matt King let Penny down very badly on a number of occasions
It was a combination of factors, but the ridiculing of Penny went beyond anything I have seen previously and I thought it was shameful. Your opinion is different, so be it.

There was that famous photo now....

Matt King and Kevin Penny, split by 2 buses!?

As much as id like to blame saints for everything i don't think we can. Penny's confidence and development took a dive when the excellent James lowes hung him out to dry for showboating and daring to inject some entertainment into the game.

Thanks Offload ... good read this. I think Toby King and Patton made a leap forward during the season and it's made us look much stronger as a squad. Is there any body else you think might do a similar sort of leap next year or year after?

That picture was a mock up . I was trying to highlight the fact Penny should be pulling the defence across .

There is a local lad named Harvey Livett, who has all the requirements for Superleague, who in my opinion needs to be tested at the higher level now.

He can play Centre, Stand-Off, Winger & Back-row, with great handling & goal kicking skills

I was disappointed Smith didn`t play Harvey against Oldham in the Challenge Cup game against Oldham, in stead of Ormsby.

I'd have never of guessed.
I'm gonna change stands for next season, now I know I'm wasting my time standing at the east bus stand.

but that image highlighted Matt King rushing in needlessly on the Saints second rower (dark hair City fan name escapes me) leaving Penny split between Matt Gidley the best centre in the league at the time and Ade Gardner the top try scorer in the league at the time.....

My Recollection of those times IS Penny Constantly waving and shouting at his inside men to come across and on that occasion like many others it never came. So he's left with the choice of going for the man with the ball (the correct decision) and allowing Gardner the simple run in because Gidley was too good with his offloading.

so winger scores, means wingers fault under forum rules at the time.

obviously todays rules are different and when wingers score on Matty Russells wing its allowed because of his grafting mid field carries.


ahhhhh but they were happy days..........

So kps faults are due to occasionally the defensive line not moving across?? Seems as far fetched annexcuse as the saints fans giving him stick for not kicking on and realising his potential.

He is good but not good enough at the top end of the table. We dobt have a winger or centre that is even close to the England nz Oz team n that's not good enough imo.

If the flying pig had his head screwed on and played to his full potential week in week out then we would most definitely have a winger close to the England team.

Our best English wingers according to Bennett are from the 2 clubs at the wrong end of the league.

Is this a serious post? At that time he was an absolutely awful player, whose calamitous mistakes cost you numerous games and potentially trophies. What did Saints fans do that was disgraceful exactly? We got excited sure, a buzz went around the place when the ball neared Penny, particularly in the air. Watching him was similar to watching Jamie Lyon, almost every touch would result in something exciting happening. We laughed when he made his numerous errors, we chanted 'There's only one Kevin Penny'. Are you telling me that you wouldn't react in a similar fashion if we couldn't ever win at the HJ because Mark Percival kept knocking on and gifting you tries? I'm struggling to see what happened that was a disgrace, Penny's performances aside.

Do you have a link for this one please DRH? Can't see anything in the public domain.