Extract from Powells post match comments- Little dig at Mac maybe

Kelvin-Ive just watched the match tries 3 times on my sky-Clubb was at fault for both Sammutts tries-take a look. Howell was responsible for no tries conceded.

Howell might not have been at fault defensively but he was bloody awful in attack - It is so rare that I see him have a good game these days. Dare I say he has been one of our least succesful signings? He never stands out. He certainly had an absolute shocker today.

Clubb improved on last week and gave O'Callaghan a bit more ball. JOC impressed me with his willingness to take the ball in; He wasn't given much in the way of opportunities but he tried his heart out. Burnett looked good again, made plenty of yards down the left and often needed three tacklers to stop him. I thought Dorn and Gale were also impressive - perhaps this will be Gale's year.

We should have been out of sight in this game, Sammut apart Crusaders were terrible and offered so little, yet time and time again with their line in sight we either coughed up possession or couldn't find a way through - better sides will punish us for this. Having said that, I thought we once again defended pretty well and looked a damn sight better organised than under the McDermott era.

And as for 1700 - that simply can't be right. There was 3,000 there - not that that is anything to shout about in itself.

Not sure how many that stand holds but it was 2/3rds full at most.

Wasn't Howell our top try scorer in his first year.

Didnt he make the break for Melling to get away then Dorn to finish

Ive got a feeling Howell and Burnett will make a good strike partnership on the left

I think it holds 4,200.......regardless of the actual attendance, 1700 or 3000....it is still a worry that the club spent money in Metro, offered loads of freebies/cheap tickets to ST holders, it was the first home game of the season and yet we struggled to get a decent crowd.
Let's hope they continue with some activity in Metro through the whole season and come up with some good "local" initiatives.....

from where i was sat the for sammuts second try the defence was compacted so much on the left there was acres of space for sammut to play with, so sorry have to say it was as much a team problem, Sammut was always going to be the problem man.
I not watched the tries on tv yet, so happy to be proved wrong but looked like we had poss 3 defenders that side of the sticks!!!!

How did Kouparitsas and Bailey go in the game ????

I'm an 'm62er' as you call us! I'm one of the ones who wants RL in London to thrive because my sport comes before my club. If you got over 3k, even if it's for tax purposes, you should have reported it as that. I just think it would be a lot better publcity-wise.

Good luck for the season by the way. Even though you cost me a fortune last week by coupon-busting me.

I arrived just before kick off and walked right along the front of the stand to get to the end we were kicking towards. That stand was about half full, i.e. 2,000, with about eighty behind the sticks. Official attendance was maybe a bit light, but not by much.

I enjoyed the game, but Quins should have won a bit more convincingly. Looking at the fixture list it's hard to see where any more points will come from in the next four games, but we've made a good start, so "onwards and upwards". I feel more enthusiastic than in the last few seasons.

There does seem to be a bias against teams outside the M62 corridor up here. I can't understand it though - it's very backwards thinking from my fellow Northerners. Personally I would like all of the expansion teams (and apologies if you're offended by that term!) to succeed - it can only be good for the game if Quins, Catalans and Crusaders start producing youngsters, putting out good teams and draw good crowds. Talk of throwing any of those teams out for Leigh, or other such League sides is madness. If I was in charge, Toulouse would be in with a shot of a license this time around.

Oh, enjoy Mellor and Pryce. He gets a lot of stick from the home crowd, but I think Karl is an excellent little (ha!) player. Teams are terrified of attacking his wing, and he falls over the line with the best of them. Mellor has been spoken in the same breath as S. Tomkins at Wigan, so it'll be interesting to see how he performs for you guys as the season progresses.

Sorry, wasn't having a dig it was genuinely funny.

Agreed. I've only seen the tries on Sky Sports but the second Sammut effort was due to lack of numbers, not an individual error. Granted, Clubb missed a 1-on-1 for the first Sammut try but, again, there was a lack of lateral movement inside him - when anyone is left 1-on-1 it means there's been already been a defensive failure to read the play.

The most pleasing aspect of the game for me was our kicking game. We may actually have an English half-back who can kick the ball to stay in the in-goal area!
We should have won by a bigger margin, and they did bomb a great opportunity to steal the game from us late on.
I did think we looked really great in the spell when Chad went to 9 and Bailey operated at 6 (and that is no disrespect to Andy Ellis who had a fine game). As the combinations settle down I think we'll be better with ball in hand, although I've got to say Dorn's try early in the second half really was a joy.
Great to see KT's go forward - the whole team lifted when he came on. It does annoy me though that we let that lazy, greedy get Sammut over for 2 tries.

Think criticism of Howell unfair. He had a poor game by his standards, but he nade the decisive break for the winning try, and he is a consistent try scorer.

Thought bailey at stand-off looked good, Cad at 7 still doesnt feel right - may be worth giving Mellor a go and spelling Ellis/Randell. would like to see Pyrce given a go - either for 0'C (who has done nothing wrong) or Mellor (who i would put on the bench because he can virtually cover any position on the pitch.

I thought we could and should have won by more - but that is a game we would have lost last season, and the season before - so good on them! We seem to be playing better as a team. Dorn and Gayle are excellent. Ellis and Chad good. Great to have Karl back and for a first game he really went forward well. Ambler, Bailey, Burnett (especially) and Nick K all had moments. Next games are hard, but will give us a realsitic view of where we will be at end of season. If we avoid getting slaughtered by Leeds then i will be more than happy.

I think the crowd was 3000 or so - i think we did shoot ourselves in the foot - but keep winning, keep marketing, get a couple of good cup draws and we may be on our way.

Feel more optomistic than at any time for last 12/15months?

This attendance business really took the shine off for me. Driving home I was jubilant; a win against the odds (hanging on to a two point lead for 20 mins!), joint top of the league and a good performance to boot, and moreover a reasonable attendance for a Crusaders fixture! And then when I get home I check the attendance to see 1700!! There was never ever just 1700 in the ground. As others have said 3000 (or near on) still isn't great but we haven't helped ourselves have we.

Regarding the game I really do like the look of Mike Burnett, and I thought Jamie O'C was excellent. He's had stick on here before but I think that now he is looking the part. Plenty of hard work taking the ball in and a fantastic try saving tackle in the first half. At the very least he's not making it easy for Pryce and Calderwood waiting in the "wings".

Likewise, I can't believe the crowd was 1766; this really bugged me last night.

In light of there being a "new broom" in the house perhaps the question of the difference between "actual" and "official" attendance figures could be raised at the next fan's forum. I think Gus mentioned the resurrection of a fans forum (date tbc) in his statement.

It's bugging me as well !

?!!

Have I missed something? Quality player. Best Crusaders man on the park by a tu'penny bus ride yesterday.

Regarding his second try, although the defence was pretty thin, that penalty should never have been awarded by Child that led to the try. I believe on that occasion it was a blatant interference he adjudged to be a knock-on.

A very gritty Quins performance - and it hasn't been often you could put those words in the same sentence! A very enjoyable game, but I think most people were too cold to cheer too loudly.

Thought other good signs included (all mentioned by others before):

(i) finally, a good kicking game! Consistently turning their fullback around, good job by Gale.
(ii) Burnett seems an elusive runner, and can get offloads away
(iii) O'Callaghan was taking the high balls well generally, can't have been easy with the greasy ball yesterday (there was one near the end which was allowed to bounce when there were around 10 players around it, think they were all knackered)
(iv) nice tight defence on our own line - can't ask for more (except for not dropping it on the first tackle 5m out after having done all the hard work!)

Re Sammut, he does unexpected things and creates uncertainty in the other side with ball in hand - I'd love to have someone like him, lazy or not!

Agree with bikefan re the kicking game. Thought it was perhaps what gave us the win in the final analysis, aside from one kick out on the full.

Good to see young British talent such as Gale and O'Callaghan looking genuine Super League standard players.

Thought Luke Gale did very well, as did Jamie O'Callaghan and Luke Ambler. Very intelligent kicking game from Gale. Do we have a new unwritten rule that you have to be called Luke to score for us this season?
The team look far more "together" this season and it was good to win with such a gritty display.

Agree with all those who claim the attendance was around 3,000. No way was it 1,700.

I'm not going to comment on the game but I thought the crowd was about right, the lowest I have seen for years. It wasn't even half full, that was plain to see from the South Stand.

It's not easy to gauge this sort of thing when only one side of the ground is open. (Well, yes one end was open but I doubt many on this board were in there.) I sat at one end when we kicked one way in the first half, and moved to the other end when we kicked the other way in the second half. At least three out of every four seats in the end blocks were vacant, so unless the centre blocks were literally full up (and as I strolled in front of the stand at kick off time a lot of the seats in the front rows were almost empty) it seems unliikely the overall crowd was much above 2,000. I don't revel in "I told you so" comments about small crowds, but to my eyes the crowd looked pretty small!

Hopefully close games and wins will help to get the crowd figures on an upward roll.