Top 8 - Bøllocks.

Just hang in until we get some bodies back, then kick on for top 4 and another GF.

Don't forget that anybody in the top 4 can make it to OT - it's only one play-off and the only advantage of top 2 is a home tie.

A lot of players out long term too.

Great performance from salford I know Wigan was missing a lot of players but so were we keys ones aswel shows how much our squads improved. If we carry on playing how we are no reason why we can't make top 4 but I'm still happy if we make the top 8.

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Correct! Some people can't see the wood for the trees! Even going into last nights game, nobody would expect us to have been hammered and we're in with a decent shout whoever we play. Cas was one of those nights that I won't read much into and last night, we couldn't reasonably expect to have won given the personnel on show.

The injury issue is the worst I can remember since I started to watch RL in 1979. Tomkins is due back in May, Williams only 2 weeks, McIllorum available next week, Lockers back from international duty and all of a sudden we look a whole lot stronger. Leuluai is 4 more weeks and Bateman due back in June too so whilst it's pretty grim overall, there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel.

The light at the end of the tunnel has been a constant 3-4 weeks away all season.

We get Burgess & Gildart back, then Gildart & Gelling are injured.
We get Micky Mac back, we then lose Clubb, Flower, Escare to injury.

It's very much one step forward, three backwards this season, much worse than last IMO.

The crowd really were the 18th man on Friday, great to witness. If we'd got behind the team in the first half maybe we could have won that. It was noticeable how the lads got a lift from the support. Long may it continue.

Really admirable act of defiance from the South Stand in the 2nd half - I have to admit I was more of a follower rather than an instigator of that as I was feeling thoroughly down in the dumps. I don't think I've ever seen a clearer impact of the crowd support on the players - made it an enjoyable experience in the 2nd half.

Agree it would be terrific it we could figure out how to get more atmosphere in the stadium consistently but this is a question that has been posed many times and no-one has been able to come up with an answer.

It just seemed to be spontaneous and it spread to the East Stand. Like you, I greatly enjoyed the second half because of it.

I'm not a fan of trying to falsely generate an atmosphere. It never seems to be a problem at Leeds, where regardless of league position they get behind the team. It will be interesting to see if their new stand affects things.

Leeds have a smaller ground so it's always full. We get similar attendances to them but because ours is mostly only ever half full you get a much flatter atmosphere.

I was only a pup back then but I don't ever remember there being a dull atmosphere at Central Park.

Fair point about Leeds ground being smaller. I think our attendances are a good few thousand below theirs on average and they don't get the Saints derby to inflate the figures. Our regular crowd is about 12,000 these days. The Saints game pushes that average up nearer to Leeds figure, but still a few thousand short.

They are, of course, from a much bigger area population wise.