A much better performance than last week (it's hard to imagine a worse performance than last week's first half effort). Now that we're not trying to accommodate Inglis we looked far more balanced with players in their preferred positions. Philbin is missing the spark that he showed last year, but he’s not become a bad player. Thewlis dropped a couple of howlers. Hopefully this won’t knock his confidence in the long term but it’s made it a lot easier to bring Lineham back in off the naughty step.

I had wanted to see Butler on the bench ahead of Walker and I was disappointed that he didn’t his chance until 13 minutes from the end, but then he failed to impress. Judging by his squad number he was brought in for the future / cover so not a disaster, he may improve as time goes on. Mulhern continues to look to be good value for money.

Just reading the cas forum. Jeez they're not happy.

One thing that concerns me that seems to be a constant thought on there, Powell tendency to put square pegs in roun holes rather than replace like for like.

Considering the conversation on this recently (and historically) it bothers me we may have another coach who will do this

It's all very well suggesting that you replace like with like but sometimes it just cannot be done.
With players of varying standards and small squads & with Cas's big injury problems players just have to shuffle. When I read the regular criticism of shuffling I would like to see forum members give an alternative full team listed ... then we could see what the reality of the "square pegs round holes" theory really is. So a moan such as ... why play Ratchford at half-back, King at Second Row, Thewlis on the wing or Currie at Half Back does not tell the full story.
Cas just had to shuffle the pack and we sometimes have to do the same.
Selecting sides has always been a compromise.

Perhaps our fitness levels helped yesterday & in our second half recovery against Hudds. Cas did some good moves & matched us toe to toe for nearly an hour .Was it 6 goal line drop outs they forced so our last line defence must have saved the day.

I'm sure, but much like price moving 3 players to solve one problem, Powell seems to do similar rather than trusting his kids,

Not as extreme an example but they were short in the forwards yesterday, especially at prop so for some weird reason he plays George Griffin a prop at 2nd row, which probably helped us attack Richardson more effectively, when they had a couple of junior back rows on the bench.

It seems to be a particular moan to cas fans as this had been an issue for a few seasons now and it was stated that they had strength in depth for 2021.

A slightly more topical view, his refusal to use youngsters during his time, which may have contributed to cas not being awarded an elite academy franchise this week.

Are you seriously suggesting that comments on forums, after a team gets hammered, are all worth reading?
There are maniacs who have never been responsible for selecting a team in their lives who suddenly know so much more.
I personally don't know the players at Cas but criticising Powell before he arrives, without knowing the full story, seems a bit unfair.

Who's criticising?

I'm just highlighting a point, a coaching characteristic if you will of our incoming coach, which happens to be a similar disliked coaching characteristic of our current coach.

I think its a fair point to make, and something I've noticed before ie having a prop playing stand off

That's just brought back a memory of Ian Knott starting at stand off in a game at Wilderspool. He went for two or three 40-20s, all of which he struck beautifully off the boot but which spiralled firmly into the wall of Snookers.

The one thing from yesterday that bothers me Is DP mentioning the players out injured, in the past we have mocked him for this as it was always is standard line after a defeat. It just seems it’s every year I just hope that kind of bad luck or whatever it is does not transfer here with him.

Well, the one thing (or maybe two things) I think we should praise Price and the backroom staff for is that defensive line resilience and our endurance post-2017. Although we've been bang average in attack the last three years, we've mostly been good at scrambling and keeping out teams on repeat sets. We also rarely seem to run out of puff, and just hang in there like the eliminator at Saints 2018, or the cup final 2019. I do realise that this year we've looked a bit leaky and unfocussed in a few games for whatever reason, shuffling and all that.

It's a shame that Price just hasn't been able to make us into a clinical and cohesive attacking unit, because we've certainly got the weapons at our disposal as we saw yesterday. And for some reason, we just seem to lose interest in the last few weeks of the season when we need to stand up and be counted. Whether that's more than just Price who knows?

Personally, I didn't go to the match and since it wasn't on SKY I had to rely on the pantomime that is BBC Radio Merseyside, which gave me as much insight into the game as I have on the mating habits of the Peruvian Tree Slug.

So, I'm not qualified to comment. What I did glean was that we soaked up a lot of pressure and played some good stuff in the final quarter, with Widdop, Currie and Ratchford very much to the fore. So, maybe Ratch isn't quite the washed up, past it jersey hog that is holding back Ashton and Thewlis that was rumoured.

That was the nikau's farewell bbq match

I had Ratchford down as player of match but difficult to argue with Widdop. He got the ball in situations that suited his skills and wasn't trying to create from scratch. Some very good quick hands.

Just highlighting a criticism then?
Les Boyd would be a very creative Stand Off. Bill Payne not so good.

You are a lot older than I thought you was.