Tackling the thread title in general, I'll reserve judgement till next week.

Batley are on a bit of down slope and we "owe them" so I would hope a convincing win at home.

But I'm still happy with any kind of win.

Bradford seem back in the ascendancy again and London appear to be THE team at the moment but before the Summer Bash roles around there are what I still think will be big tests away at Swinton and Oldham.

But if you carry on the money arguement, if money won everything then Leicester shouldn't be any where near winning the Premier League.

Just been reading the Fev board they thought Childs reffed well. Amazing lol.

They would think that - how many players did they have in the bin, and how many penalties did they concede?

Not me! Never liked him, always awards at least 20 pens a game at super league level.

Fantastic game yesterday, proper advert for the championship, enjoyed the full 80 mins and thought we was going to snatch a draw at the end



Obviously a few people have mentioned incidents which could've spoilt the game, not seen the Griffin incident but if he has done what is supposed to have happened then should end up with a ban or the usual early guilty plea no ban



The biting incident is a wierd one, Whiting claims he was bitten and having known him from school he isn't a liar, yet both rugby league papers have it down as he is on report for dissent

wouldnt you just end up in bin for dissent??

One incident that people haven't mentioned is late in 1st half, Thackeray was wrapped up in tackle and i think it was Hopkins aimed a headbutt at him ( he has been out a few week with a face injury ) i could see it from behind sticks and it was up near the stand you guys were in, anyone see it? Again could end up been cited and banned

Other than that, as said fantastic game and fair play to all you that travelled over, makes a game 10 times better in my eyes when the banter takes over and creates a great atmosphere.

Good luck next week, want you to win for a change

What's more amazing...

Fev fans saying the ref did a good job, abiet their team losing.

Or

Our fans saying he had a shocker, abiet us winning


Now that's wierd

I want a ref who gets pace on the game thus keeping sides apart, few penaltys and who fans ask who that ref was at the end

Re Glows post I agree. ok we are currently top of the Championship but with our squad and despite our injuries we should be playing well for 80 mins not 20 mins per game.

Re Snake's 1985 post I saw the incident he referred to too but I thought it was Acton not Hopkins

Course he could not have made contact otherwise a ref like Childs would have spotted it.

Just watched match recording,Featherstone really had a good go at Leigh and refs calls were correct and fair for both sides. Think you guys are missing Brierley. Anyway Leythers good luck for rest of campaign and see you at P.O.R next season.

Well ground out a hard fought win. Showed real spirit & determination to come away with the win. Higson was fantastic in his determination to get back defensively & Acton incredible in his attacking go forward, think we'd have lost without either of them. Good to see Rangi back & think he had a solid first game back. We need to be a bit smarter at times though when it comes when & where to try to pass it about & when and where to stick it up our jumpers, 6 points ahead and 5min left trying to offload it off the floor on our own 20 m line is just bonkers. Don't think it's fair to say "With the money we've spent we deserve to win against anyone." There's some good teams in The Championship & everyone will up their game against us. Would like to see us now though go on a good run & really put a few teams to the sword with full 80 min performances. We've got the talent, we've got the attitude to grind out wins, we need to get the attitude great teams have where it doesn't matter what the score is or how long there is left to play, it's not about winning or losing it's about scoring or forcing the repeat set every or keeping them from scoring.

Watched Miners on Saturday & saw a far higher standard of refereeing than Sunday, if Child wasn't a full time ref he wouldn't be doing top amateur games. Considering he's supposed to be a full time SL ref the ruck speed was slower than I've seen for years & we seemed to be playing a 5m offside. Don't really know what either sin bin was for but how you give those & just give a penalty for taking Micky off the ball is beyond me. Coupled with the inconsistent what's high & what's not and what's forward & what's not mind of a Child yet again fails to get the basics right.

Sin bin for Ackton tripping.
Hock for head into Hardmans face in 3man tackle.

Couldn't see the Acton innt as it was down the other end of the pitch. If it was for that with Hock then again shows the inconsistency & incompetence of Chid as there was far far worse going on all game.

Well the defence was brilliant as was the attack when we were in their 25. All we need to fix is the bit in the middle (which surely can't be too difficult)

Hock was binned for telling Child to go forth and multiply.

Would like remind people,middle eights are not till the end of July,there is a lot of rugby to be played before then.Last season we were battering everybody out of sight and were did that get us come the end of season. We have had loads of disruptions this season,with one thing or another,but after all that we are still top at the half way stage.Im not convinced about SL teams being stronger this season than last,everybody beating each other,look at Wigan at Wakefield and Hull KR at Cas this week.Lets hope we can build from here and get a settled team and see were we are,come the middle 8s.Onwards and Upwards

Well said Ryan !

Yep. Said that last week in my post after the cup game. Don't see why people are panicking. I'd be worried if we were Bradford right now. But we're top.

Not sure why people think we were battering people out of sight this time last year, the facts show we score one try less per game a year later. This despite not having settled pivots apart from Mickey, this despite coach quitting, this despite top try scorer quitting, this despite a horrendous injury crisis, this despite having to use 4/5 loanees.

We will only get better, and who ever is in the 8's we will more than give a game to....

Agree. Castleford could be there for the taking if their current form continues. Especially if they have a run in the cup. On a form line through Oldham /KR we are about 90 points better. (Then again on a line through Toulouse we would be lucky to beat Rochdale) which shows how unpredictable it is. A MPG against anyone could be treated as chance to revisit the spirit of 71.

No one’s panicking, said last week we have still got time to improve, it’s just that we are showing very little if any signs of doing so, I also said we peaked to early last season, this year we are playing nowhere near our potential, but I doubt we can just flick a switch come the 8’s and suddenly become a wonder team.

There has been no improvement in the number of technical penalties we are getting pinged for, or the ball handling, or the game management ie stupid offloads in our own 20/30. The improvement needs to start happening from our next game. We will be going nowhere averaging 16 penalties a game. Neil Jukes said he was aiming at an average of about 7 penalties a game. To make that we would not have to give another penalty away in our next 10 games

Totally frustrating plus it gives the opposition a real boost. Jukes should get Alex Murphy in for consultancy on putting players on the bollocking mat - not "we talked about it in training". It does reflect badly on Neil - double penalties for talking back to ref are unprofessional.

Any bonuses should be paid on completed sets. Fines for speaking to the ref. Sin Bin home by public transport.

I cant believe all the critics on here complaining about our performances every week. Yes the spectacular flowing rugby is not with us this year mainly because two the exponents of the speed stuff have either left or, long term injured!
We have played Batley,Bradford,Halifax,Dewsbury and Featherstone away and, not one of them at home yet ! and, we are currently top of the league!!
I don't know what position people watched the game from on Sunday but I was pretty central and had a good view of all that was going on. It was pretty obvious from the start Fev were targeting Hock and Childs was loving it ! If Hock swore at Childs? I bet he didn't more then me! Every game he refs us in is controversial and we did magnificent to win that game. How Fev never managed to have a player binned is beyond me? Some of the penalties he gave against us were mysterious? even the Fev fans around me were puzzled by them! After the match Neil Jukes said on the radio that many of the penalties were inconsistent and that's putting it mildly!!
I thought Rangi was superb on his return and will only get better, Fev certainly welcomed him back!! Did Gareth Hock bite Richard Whiting? because, according to Childs, he committed every other offence!
Big Raps for Adam Higson without his defensive efforts and all round play we would not have won that game! His chase and tackle on their winger is the best I've seen from a Leigh Winger since Dessie's effort to stop HKR's Hubbard in the 1982 CC game at Hull

Adam has redeemed himself after his nightmare at Bradford carry on lad my MOM !!
Our defence is top drawer lets appreciate this facet this season and hope it brings us the ultimate goal which, we badly missed out on last year!
I don't know how successful Neil Jukes will be as Leigh Coach however, looking at the League table you would have to say he's doing something right! Lets give the lad a proper chance and support him instead of insulting him by suggesting more experienced coaches could benefit him, Brian McDermott is rated highly however, he is struggling to get results and, he has some of the best talent available!
Lets have less negativity / criticism and get behind our team!!

I like it thanks for posting that, i couldn't have said it better

Agreed, we were grinding out a few close wins last season too. Considering who we've played, the injuries we've had & how the standard of The Championship has improved we're doing very well. However that "We'll see out a close win, it's OK we'll just score more than you, not quite playing our best for the full 80 min but still getting the win" attitude is where we came unstuck against Hull KR & Wakefield in the Qualifiers & where we went wrong. I said at the start of the season I'd like to see us really go all out, put some teams to the sword & play every second as if it's 0-0 with 1 minute left. As it's only with that attitude you'll beat a SL club fighting for their lives. I've yet to see that so far this season. We're half way through the league now, getting our injured backs back & Jukes is settling into the job well. Time to start getting into that attitude we'll need when the SL clubs come to town, we've got the talent (I still think we had the talent last season) but do we have the attitude & game management?

I have and always will voice my opinion on how we have played be it good, bad or indifferent, at this moment you may feel that I’m being over critical, but we have been a joy to watch these last few years and with the new signings we have made, we should be in a position to kick on, and although we do see small glimpses of what we could be capable of, we are not playing anywhere near our potential, you can shove as many facts, figures, and excuses in my direction that you want, it doesn’t change what I see.

I wouldn’t class our defence as great when we let both Bradford and Fev back into it from comfortable leads, I guess we blame Childs for the Fev one, but if Hock did swear at a Referee then that’s stupid and deserves a card and so does Acton’s tripping, so correct decisions. I also doubt when we look back he will have got many of the other decisions wrong as generally I find referees do get more right than wrong, hence why I doubt you’ll find many if any posts from me blaming a Ref.

Oh and whilst I’m on my soap box there is no such thing as a bad off load (unless it goes forward) you have 12 other players (unless we have 2 in the bin

) on your team why wasn’t one of them there to catch it?

Come on Jukes let’s get our house in order, and show the RL world what we are capable of.

And just for the record I’ve been getting behind this team/club for 50yrs, and this current team is nowhere near as bad as some of the teams I’ve seen.