I thought we were awful in defence at times too- apart from that excellent 10 minutes between 65 and 75 minutes where we defended 4 sets on our line and absorbed everything wakey threw at us.
We did prevent them from scoring in the second half- but those first half tries they scored were massively soft to concede.
Wakeman - I know he's not had a preseason, isn't up to speed, blah, blah- but I've seen little to suggest he's got anything to warrant keeping out mason. Jerry good go forward but got turned in defence again. Let's face it many were at fault defensively!And Gaskell was both good and bad at times. Why are we still allowing brough to kick? Is he putting on bets because he's been truly awful so far this season- let Gaskell or brierley do it!!!!! (Let's face it brierley is allowed/doing little else-we aren't playing to his strengths)

Sam wood- a couple of errors but he was a terrier in defence and massive effort from him.
Ikahihifo- wish they'd all run the ball in like him and big minutes again!
Mellor -warming to this lad. Some poor decisions at times but never a backwards step.
Taai- beast
Roberts- strong when he came on but little opportunity tonight
Leeming- what an absolute star this lad is turning out to be- his running from DH seems to have come on leaps and bounds!! And what a stint!

derek and taai the best front row in the league at the minute. immense! When they go off we have nothing! how we won tonight i will never know. Think a creative half to replace brierly is required and a couple of decent front rowers for the interchange with derek and taai. then we will have a chance!

We don't need to replace Brierley, we need to use him correctly and play to his strength's. He isn't a creator he's a finisher.

so we play without a scrumhalf and just a finisher? we need a good creative scrum half not a finisher!

We had a creative scrumhalf last season, how well did that go. And when you have a pack that is getting beaten every week despite having two great forwards, even Alex Murphy would have struggled to shine.

I know what point you are making and i agree Brierley is doing nothing except be there for the offloads, unfortunately our players don't look for support, In the quality sides It's the first thing they look for. Early days yet, we have a large hill to climb but we only need to get one third of the way up it this season, Like RS said it won't be quick.

And I'd av kept Ellis over brierly in a heart beat. Just what we r lacking under rick stone.

How many tries did Wakey score?

Just curious since our defence was so poor? How often were they given the ball thanks to abysmal reffing? I assume we lost, since I was obviously watching a different game...

There was a spell of about 20 minutes when the game went their way, like all games ebb and flow but our defence was solid and Wakey made few inroads

To say we were poor is frankly ridiculous and about typical of the constant whining and defeatism on this forum

We were not poor but hardly world beaters. Play someone like Wigan or cas and would have been a different story on that showing. We are just expressing our concerns while happy with the 2 points! . I think it's a good 2 points considering the overall performance

Of course we aren't world beaters, and some folk need to remember that

This is a season with a cobbled together team and hamstrung by our awful last season, but they work damn hard and dug very deep tonight to get the win

100% guaranteed wed have lost that game last season

And we did it against 14 men

Happy with the result. Our indiscipline was the main problem.

I was glad to see smith back in the squad. I'm not writing Wakeman off yet but I think he needs a few weeks at Oldham to get up to speed. He's really lacking in defence falling off tackles, lacking a bit up top. It will come but I'd rather play Mason until Wakeman is ready. Mason earnt it after last season

I'm not sure Wakeman can play at Oldham Due to his visa.

......so our fastest player (at the moment ) is stood , static ! feeding the scrum instead of looking at the opposition defence positioning , and then making a decision on his options on attack

Sorry , but must be something Im missing here......................

9/10 times hes gonna pass it on - and be highly unlikely to get it back as it moves along the line (to slower players ?)

Just seems that 90% of the time we `re not using his pace at all on first play , but no doubt someone will explain all!*

Your missing nothing crackers. It doesn't matter who plays at 7- we've already seen this- they are always, always going to be overshadowed whilst ever brough is in our side as he takes over.

We nil a team in the second half and our defence is poor.

You couldn't make it up.

The problem in the first half was our line speed and intensity.

My gran could have made metres against us in the first half.

And she's 6 foot under.

I saw a game of good and bad from both sides but what I was really pleased about was that we were still playing right up to the final whistle.Pussies were blowing just after half time.