The missed kicks, whether down to kicker, technique or difficulty were clearly key - suddenly an 8 point lead becomes 12 and Cas have to start chasing the game and mistakes inevitably come.

However, for.me, the loss of Brown was the gamebreaker. He has been excellent all season and his defence is sulerb, whereas Patton's defence is woeful. Sub-woeful in fact.

Kevin stays on, we win.

Livetts first real bad game for me. A lot of their breaks came from his lazy grabs on the inside shoulder and he missed the kicks that would have seen us edge it. Having said that half the team weren't great either. Good to see Price identify what went wrong as oppose to the generalisations Smith would come up with. Now we have to rectify it though and quickly or we're going to lose out on the four.

A lot of Cas fans saying the same mate. His game management and calming influence would have been massive in the last quarter.

I agree, it was indeed a schoolboy error by the touch judges.

If a ball hits the inside of the post, its subsequent path is then unlikely to take it outside the line of the post....unless the laws of physics are different in that area of the HJ.

Come on lefty ... you need to post this a few more times yet so that we all fully understand where you stand on the issue. A few more block caps would help. KICKERS WIN MATCHES. Mind you I reckon the stats do prove that kicks are more difficult when the try is scored six inches from the corner flag. But we'll ignore those stats eh!

ppe

Yeah, like semi finals and golden point, etc.

I don't think it will be a Cas v Wire final but because of the playoff format now, the chances aren't as slim as you think.

Now if you were to say "Cas and Wire will finish the top 2 places in the league", the chances of THAT are extremely slim.

You're probably going to see Saints top the league, and three from Wigan, Cas, Wire and Hull in the next four positions. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a bit of a shake up between now and the end of the season and we see something like Cas 2nd, Wigan 3rd and Wire 4th. There's a risk of us being squeezed out by Hull, especially if we get to Wembley and have a couple of substandard performances around then.

But anyway, if you accept that there's a fairly good chance that Cas and Wire will both be in the top 4 then it only takes two results to make the Cas v Wire GF happen, and only one of them (Saints losing) would be a shock. Saints are the best team around but they aren't as far ahead as they were back in the era of Cunningham, Scully, Long and co. It wouldn't be a massive shock for Saints to lose a game. In the old days the playoffs were much more geared up to giving the minor premiers, or 2nd place, a better chance of making the Grand Final, but now all they get for it is a home game in a knock out where 4th place has nothing to lose and one slip means goodnight.

You would always see Hesford practicing before the games at Wilderspool. Judging the conditions and wind. Kick after kick.
As they say some practice till they get it right, winners practice till they can't get it wrong.

Come any Grand Final reliably securing 2pts will become vital. But I think Price will get a grip of this.

After Charnley's second try and Goodwin's touchline conversion to bring the score back up to 30-32 there were still 9 minutes left on the clock. The next set should have been 5 drives and a kick to try and lay a platform for a winning try. Instead we were trying to score from inside our own half as if there were only 2 minutes left. Probably the first time in a while I've seen us look panicky/uncomposed.

Seeing as lefty's other gripe is about how we're "too nice" and need someone who can put a bit of niggle in the tackle and mix it up, I wonder if we could raise the transfer fee to bring Jake Connor over from Hull?

6 of our last 7 games are against teams outside the top 4. If we were to beat these 6 teams we go into the super 8s on 34 points and would arguably be in 2nd place.... Why is it not possible Cas could finish 2nd.... At the super 8s stage we should be back at full strength or close to.

Cas are 8 points behind Saints with a game in hand, win that and they are 6 points behind.

If Saints were to drop a game before Wembley with an eye on the final, and drop another in a post-Wembley victory hangover (not unreasonable assumptions, look at Saints history), Cas could close down another 4 points on them and make it tight towards the end of the season.

We won't win out no chance. Can't see us winning over in France. I would bite a hand off for 4th and everyone back for the semis.

And you could say the same about Wigan.

Problem is, Saints can’t play in a final on their own. Therefore one of those teams is going to play you in a final.

Two of the teams who could play you are slowly getting better and better as the season progresses, and the other one was very good until the last few weeks.

I don’t think the chances of one of those teams beating you in a final is all that slim. Saints May be the best team so far, but they really aren’t THAT good. Certainly not unbeatable in a final. Rightly favourites though I’ll guve you that...

I think you will beat Catalans away. There season lies on one game.