I'm not sure if it's the right phrase to say that we rely on them Alan as only McCarthy plays in a pivotal position as it were, but I think any team is going to suffer when you've got players of the quality of Ty, Beast and Unit missing from a side.

Interesting to note is a lot of people are mentioning the fitness and the tiredness will be improved come the return fixture at bigfellas

Ive seen your fixture list in July - Barrow away then us away then widnes away plus maybe the potential of NRC game/s to boot, thats not an easy month by any stretch

Although there are a weeks break inbetween I think any team would be suffering with a fixture run like that

We will have to see how it goes, but your teams fitness may not be as good as people think it could be

Some of the most bizzarre comments i have ever read on this thread, Nanyn had his best game last night he made yards every time with the ball and took plenty ball up same goes for Stanton. Jimmy Taylor did 80 mins and i bet 50 tackles most on his own so don't come this no Leigh player played well sh*te. And i'm sorry Geezer you talk nonsense Ricky Bibey "walks the Ball up" if you drove as many balls in as he does lets se if you could run full tilt everytime! Tiredness paid its full part in our defeat both physically and mentaly!

You are right. There were some very good individual performances from players last night. I agree that Nanyn, Taylor, Bibey, Hill etc did very well in very difficult circumstances, when they were naturally very tired.

Quite honestly I do not think fitness is an issue but what I do think it is a big ask to make part time players play a game every 4 days against a Non Relegation side and what is after all two Championsip teams with relatively better squads than most in this league.

Featherstone were fresh after not having played against anyone since they were unexpectadly beaten at home by Toulouse about 19 days ago.

Their defence was excellent they did not make many mistakes and they had a good game plan which they stuck to.

There are no easy games in this league, which is how it should be, but in the last week or so we've played Bradford, and Widnes, two tough games, whilst you’ve had the same period of time just to prepare for this game, and with a good game plan that stretched us making us even more tired. But it’s not just about our fixtures and fitness it’s the fact that you will also have games leading into the re-match. Will the result be any different? Well we’ll have to wait and see.

As I’ve said before you deserved the win and well done to those of you who came over, let’s hope for a good game in the re-match.

2nd in the league says enough for me. But I also appreciate the very popular hobby of "armchair rugby coach".
The team no doubt need to do many things to improve. I have no doubt that the professionals concerned know it too.

Others may have said but I thought it was tiredness or fatigue rather than a fitness problem. Obviously those things are related but playing two games of modern rugby league in 4 or 5 days is very hard work. I'm not sure the body fully recovers in such a short time. Hence them being tired on the night and lacking bant. I may be wrong. But, fitness has not been a problem in earlier matches and I was under the impression that Millward was beasting the players pre season. We have a good physio also so I'm sure they are well conditioned just not fully recovered from Widnes match.

Quite possibly Fev were or are a better team than us and beat us - quite prepared to believe it. If so Millward and co have their work cut out but I have faith that they will do that come the business end.

How has nobody mentioned Tommy G and Jimmy T? Both worked their nadgers off last night.

In this division it is unlikely that any team can go the full season unbeaten so not too disappointed that we were beaten by the current form team and top of the division. I do think however that the results of teh next two games will define our standing in the table come the end of the year.

your right I missed them two Taylor & Goulden we're good & we all know Taylor is a tackling machine but Tommy is trying to take his title he's a good old fashioned rugby player is Tommy like a work horse he is.

It was quite obvious to me and those sat around that the lads looked very tired last night 3rd game in the same time as Fevs 1 game, it became evident when passing was going astray knock ons and all in all a very tired looking set of lads I was not surprised we lost the game but thought we did very well only to be 8 points adrift at the end considering Fev played better than us.We have lost a game so what, we don't need to start with the analysis yet ,i'm sure IM does'nt need telling how to do his job .Fev are not top for nothing ,its a blip thats all .

Lets hope the tiny blip doesn't grow into a bigger blip with Whitehaven and Fax next up

Haven is the last place you want to go when you've got some tired bodies, I'm sure Stokes will make sure its a physical game.

Tut