When I heard the chairman say we will win by 20, I thought I'll believe it when I see it. We've made promising signings but I never let myself be misled by other peoples expectations.I am still very hopeful and will watch as many games as I can this season win or lose. The championship doesn't even start for 2 more months so this first friendly is very early days! I've always seen friendly games as training games not adverts.

I agree regarding the Chairman's comments, however, did anyone really believe we would beat Fax by 20 points? I for one did not and those that did maybe yesterday gave the much needed reality check. I honestly thought we'd put out a stronger squad yesterday, but as people have said it's just a friendly and gives JD time to experiment in readiness for the new season. Judge JD and the team halfway through the season and beyond, not on the first friendly game. My personal view is that a number of those players that took the field yesterday will be fringe players this season. Yesterday was a learning curve for the team, JD and hopefully our chairman!

Whether us fans believed Fawcetts comments about beating fax by 20 is irrelevant , Its how its percieved by the rest of the rugby league world . For the good work our chairman has done for the club i wish he would let our players do the taking on the pitch. A certain B***s chairman not so long ago made a lot of enemies by generally chatting s**t and bulling (no pun intended) his team up, much to the annoyance of other clubs. I dont want our club to be the laughing stock of the championship .

[iJust to say this is me with my supporters hat on ..not my club staff hat ..[/i

A few years ago there were many on this forum berating our board for lack of ambition ....now the poor buggers if they try to be optimistic, can't win either way ..

Whilst I can fully appreciate maybe the '20 point victory ' comment was maybe a tad overcooked , if Gary had underplayed our chances at Fax, there would have been much criticism of him not looking to the future or underselling the club.. While we are never being to be in such a unique situation as the 93-96 'Cougarmania' era , one of the features of that was the bold stated ambition of the board that frequently was laughed off as a dream , but got enough folk suitably enthused to draw in the crowds .

Boxing day was first game back after a hell of an off season , with a hell of a lot of changes .......bit of slack folks ???

[iJust to add to that after the lack of a driver Gary drove the supporters minibus trip to Fax , fair play to the fella
I'm fairly sure there are few club chairmen who would do that [/i

He certainly seems to be a chairman who likes to mingle with the fans, anyway. I remember (vaguely !) meeting him in the street after the Grand Final, happy to let us and Worky fans pose with the cup for a few piccies and such.
Maybe he gets a bit over-enthusiastic, but that's not really a bad thing!

Here Here..

Well said.

The squad that jd has put together is has good has any in the championship these games are for the team to sort out how they can play with differant players and to let jd see what talant hes got. Bring on the northern rail cup then you can judge what the team can do .My personal opinion is that they will hold there own and give the socalled big hitters a good going over starting with featherstone.Stay behind the coach and team make cougar park a hard place to get points from

No it isn't.
If Keighley get in the top six and get through the group stage of the NRC you should class that as a massive stride forward and something to build on the season after.

There is nothing wrong with the chairman talking the club up.
But and its a [sizebig[/size but it needs to be done in the right way.

Coming and saying we will be going for SL in 5 years (now 3) and it not happening makes him look silly.

Saying we will go and beat Fax by 20. Makes him look silly when it does not happen. It also gives ammo to ever other player/fan/chairman to use against him.

He would have done better saying something along the lines of, "We are really looking forward to our game against our near neighbours. These are normally good games that both sets of fans enjoy. It will give JD a chance to try one of the many combination he has this year. It will also go a long way to help us prepare for a bid at SL in the future".

Sorry Jim, but - rubbish....

Aim high..

Never mind the newspaper copy, well rehed, conciderate and politicaly correct statement - tell as it is, form the heart, with enthusiasm, motivational and with belief...

Who cares if he aimed high and missed?

Who cares about daring to dream?

Follow the dream and then live it.....

I promise you this, nobody will follow if the message is weak.

Merry Christmas pal and a Happy New year

I agree with Jim, trust is a big issue with many lost Cougar fans. Broken promises and rose coloured spectacles never ever gain trust.

What jc with a team that youve got there is no reason why you cant get to the final in both comps

I wish,but its unlikely.
On paper you've got a good team but your new signings are getting on a bit and i think it'll be a long season for them,don't know about your squad depth though?.

I agree, I don't think a club chairman should conduct themselves like that.

As for the bold statement regarding Super League, I could have almost have understood if he'd backed it up with a clear vision of how it was going to be achieved.

We're only 2 years away from having to submit the franchise bid, where the club will have to demonstrate that it is better equipped than any other applying club outside Super League, be it from the Championship or from abroad. Like Halifax tried and failed to, we may have to beat a current Super League club. What do we need to achieve?

- Win the NRC or reach the championship Grand Final. To be fair the club has put a good squad together, but so have a lot of Championship sides. Halifax and Featherstone's squads are better than ours.

- Achieve an average attendance of 2,500. There's a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes at the club to improve this. However we struggled to get 1,000 through the turnstyles for most games last season. Even with more away fans and the hard work going on at the club it's a massive ask to improve attendances by 150% in 2 years.

- Deliver a Super League standard stadium. Here's where it all falls down. Of the clubs already eligible to apply (Leigh, Featherstone & Sheffield) one has a near brand new ground that has hosted England games, one plays in a 35,000 all seater stadium that's hosted Premier League football, and the other has plans in place to redevelop their ground. We are miles behind, at the very least the RFL are going to want to see detailed plans, with full planning permission and funding in place to build. The likelihood is they're going want to see bricks and mortar. Given how long the planning process can take the club should have an outline plan and design for a Super League standard ground in the town.

The thing is anyone can make these bold statements, in 3 years time I'll be driving a brand new Ferrari. I don't have a driving licence, I don't have a house with a garage, and I don't earn a 6 figure salary but I'll be driving one in 3 years time........Honest

To many times the fans and local business have been let down.

This cannot happen again.

The message does not have to be weak.

It has to be right.