No change in the squad for Thursday from the Barrow match. Widnes have a few new faces.
I hope the referee will be up to the job.

Full squad. Can’t quite work out why Channing keeps appearing in the squad, when it seems clear he will never make the team?

Channing does a good job carrying out the water.

Must win game for Widnes, they lost this, they won't even make the MPG.. For us probably also must win, but we do have enough games to make up for the loss. Key for us is getting close and competing. If we get hammered will not be a fun 7 weeks to come

I'm really torn with this one. It will be a good acid test to see just where we are.

Widnes have been smart in the past by preparing for the middles 8's some distance out when they knew they were in them. Its seems they've done something similar this year. Brought in new faces, returning injured players for game 1 etc. 2 week preparation camp.

We could sneak it, we could get hammered i'm just not sure.

Key to the game is going to be ptb ruck speed. This is where the SL outfits are much better than championship teams, if they win the the ruck the ptb is quick, it’s an area where we have generally not been too good in defence or attack.
Respect possession, play to the referee, it’s not about the ref being up to the job it’s about finding what he will let go and what he won’t, another thing broncos have never been good at.
Anyone going up?

I know there are quite a few of us going up on the coach.

I agree , Widnes play it smart because they are a e SL team and edge their bets on pulling it out in the Middle 8’s to keep,their funding and position. Good luck to you guys against them , I hope you turn them over.

I don't know how it would work but there should be some way of carrying forward what has gone on in the season. Widnes clearly gave up the search for league points weeks ago and have been resting players for the 8's. How actions like this fits into Elstones view of the future of SL is beyond me.

Good luck. As a fax fan am wanting all the championship clubs to do well against the sl teams. The more we match/turn them over the better for the championship. Be good to send 2 down this year

Good luck tonight guys....looking forward to the game. Widnes are better than a side that has only won 3 SL games, but at least playing on their 3G pitch won't be strange for your players.
I predict a Vikings win by 12 points....though I'm usually hopeless at predictions !

This is really easy, I have suggested this in the past. you keep the points from the regular season games (excluding the bash/magic weekend game) against the other three teams from your league and then you add to that the results from playing the 4 teams from the other league home and away (so an 8 game mini league).

This year this would mean that London would go into the middle 8 with 5 points (wins against Toronto and Halifax, plus the draw against Toulose. The Bash game against Toulouse would not count) and then add to this from the results from their 8 games against the SL teams.
The starting table this year would look like:
Toronto - 10
Leeds - 8
Salford - 6
Widnes - 6
Toulouse - 5
London - 5
Hull KR - 4
Halifax - 4

So maybe starting of zero for every team helps London, Fax and Toulouse.

Anyway good luck in the game tonight.

U20 minutes in this is very much like our game against Widnes last season, very tight but we just ended up getting squeezed out chasing the game.

turns out the ref is utterly appalling.

Enjoyed that one. We’ll done.

Widnes are poop and will be really struggling, hopefully.