I doubt it Wakefield would have "won easily enough" with the mentioned players based on what I saw today.

The game was a good workout for both sides. Batley where good in defence throughout the 80 minutes but where lacking ideas and had poor ball control when attacking in the first half. In the second half when Moore and Black clicked at half back Batley took control of the game with a good kicking game and ball distribution.

Wakefield looked solid in defence throughout the game and Kyle Wood had a good game at half back.You cannot write a lot into the result of friendlies with both teams experimenting with combinations and rotating players. The Wakefield players and Richard Agar will be glad of a good workout against a team that defended well on what was a heavy(conditions wise) Mount Pleasant pitch.

I think what people need to remember is that "friendles" are there for the purpose of the coaching staff to get a feel of players strengths, weaknesses, areas for development game play/team wise and to develop an overall purspective of the players they have to work with in the forthcoming season. Which I think the game yesterday highlighted these points perfectly.

Personally, if we had kept the structure of the first half with limited interchanges I think it would of been a different result altogether. I think the 2nd half was diluted with too many interchanges (which is a downfall of friendlies imo), this reflected on the half backs which lacked any insight into what was happening on the field. The pack failed to make any impact on the game as the players coming into the game did not stand up well. Motu Tony, although an exceptional player, looked slightly lost at times and did not give any direction to the younger members when required. For the young players that have been raved about over the last couple of seasons in the reserves and are now on the fringe of the 1st team, Trout was average and Walshaw was lacking in impact. For the players that stood out to me, Slater never stopped working defensively for the full 80 minutes he was on the field, Wilkes, Amor and Wood didn't take a backward step.

None of the above takes away that Batley had a good defensive game and had players with points to prove, which unlike some of our players, they took.

Probably, but the point remains that in this run out games against lower league opposition only the kids give it 100%. Wood will know where he stands and nothing he did at Batley will change that. Nobody should care about the score or how most players played, we should just be glad we got no injuries and a bit more fitness.

The team to play Widnes played Cas with the almost certain addition of Wilkes, Raleigh and probably Mariano though I accept Kirmond may well be chosen before him.

Let's face it Batley are a very good championship side, had home advantage and a coach and one or two players with a point to prove. They were up against a mostly young inexperienced side. I don't think the result is anything to be ashamed of or an indication that the players didn't try.
We have short memories but surely the way we played against Cas was a far more accurate pointer of what we can expect.
As someone else said, the match was another chance for players to try different things and enhance match fitness.
Let's focus on Widnes because it seems like they think the points are in the bag!
We'll have to be at our very best because a fired up home crowd and biased sky commentary are assured!

I think that Kirmond will be in and Wilkes, not sure about Raleigh, he didn't impress me that much yesterday, also I think Marriano iis still a bit away from being match fit, Walshaw is not a million miles away for SL IMO shows good pace/strength and deffense, just need to have a bit of vision for offloading and passing and then job sorted, I also think when matt james comes back from Fax in March he will almost certainly be straight in to the 1st team