Walker, Johnstone, Miller, Brough, Fifita, Wood, Arona, Ashurst, Kirmond, Batchelor, Arundel, Gigot and Kay. Granted Brough and Kirmond are practically retired but we had quite a large number of absentees, be it injured, Covid related or not selected.

Pre lockdown we won 2/5 which over the course of a season is probably a standard win percentage for us. Post lockdown, it’s nosedived. Lack of confidence, lack of consistency in the line up.

There was no excuse for the Catalans league game. None whatsoever. Yes we lost players to injury in the first half, but I will admit the set up and attitude that day was horrible.

You can’t just run through the unplayed members of the first team squad!

Walker, Jowitt played ahead of him, he’s a first teamed and often been a starting Full Back
Johnstone is a genuine miss for us and would be for any team
Miller, dropped, injured or Covid, he’s been terrible and just skates by uncriticised
Brough, come on Wlzay! He’s semi retired and has effectively moved on
Fifita could have been selected if we wanted to pick him
K Wood was a genuine miss
Arona was a genuine miss, could have been on the bench
Ashurst was replaced by a better player and our best on the night but maybe on the bench
Kirmond, who would he replace Tanginoa or Pitts? Your reaching!
Bachelor, again for who Pitts or Tanginoa
Arundel for Tupou or Lyne, which one? Once again your reaching
Gigot, maybe at the expense of Bailey
Kay, not selected, would you pick him before BJB? No!
Navarette, again possible bench

Johnstone for Senior
K Wood for Crowther
Arona for Aydin
Navarette for Gwaze
Gigot for Bailey MAYBE

Would it be fair to say if those had played we would probably have won the match?

Whether we like it or not we have less resources than most and will be hurt more than most teams when we are missing a significant amount of our better players.

For us to be holding our own we need to be relatively injury free a bit like we were in Chesters early days...a bit like the run Salford has last year.

I don’t see how fans can’t grasp that?

We overachieved the two seasons we came 5th...one reason is the good luck we had with injuries, the other because some so called bigger teams under performed..

Leeds has a couple of bottom four finishes after years and years of success...they haven’t fully turned the corner but look at the money made available to them to strengthen and bring in the likes of Hurrell, Lui, Gale, etc...

Warrington finished bottom four in one of those seasons...they can open the cheque book and sign the likes of Murdoch-Massilla, Austin, Widdop...

Wigan under performed one of those years...they’ve recently been able to bring in players like Hastings, Burgess, Hardaker, French...Bateman next season.

So those clubs after a below par seasons have the financial clout to be able to make a real difference...

After Chesters first real disappointing season, which started well but was disrupted hugely by injuries...he couldn’t go out and sign that calibre of player....he has to rely on gambles and picking up players that very few other teams want...

Overall though I think his recruitment has been good...Tanginoa and Fifita have both proved to be excellent signings...last year we picked up Westerman and Pitts who have both been standout players this season...of course there will be ones that don’t work out but overall I think his signings have been decent on the budget he’s afforded.

He’s proved in the past when he’s had fully fit teams that he can get results and play attractive rugby.

This season was always going to be a write off after the interruption....pre lockdown we started ok...afterwards we’ve been unfortunate to have so much go against us whilst coming up against three of the best teams in the league where we had no chance...the first time we were up against a team we were pretty evenly matched against we did ok and in my eyes were a little unlucky not to win.

He deserves a chance to see this farce of a season out and see what he can do in the off season in terms of recruitment as I think we all know the areas we need to strengthen....then have a look again say 10 games into next season..

In answer to your first question, who knows!
We’ve put in plenty of less enthusiastic and more lacklustre performances with better teams out on the field than last nights. Also, if you’re going to ask that question you’ve got to ask if we’d be anywhere near Hull FC if they had their full team playing?

Some can, some don't want to.

Probably not, no.

The question I’d ask back is...

Was losing that game last night an under achievement on Chester’s part?

Training was disrupted leading up to the game due to Covid issues..

There was 9 changes from the previous week..

Two youngsters on debut...

Three players appearing for the first time in 6 months, a couple only their 2nd start in months.

I know Hull were in a very similar position, but we must be rock bottom on confidence after three straight defeats to three top sides, they had at least a recent win to their name when putting over 50 past Salford...maybe that was the ultimate difference in the end? Either way I don’t think we badly under performed given all the circumstances, as we haven’t in the 5/25 or whatever it is?

If we’d been expected to win 75% of those games we’ve lost in that run I’d be aboard the Chester out train without question because that would have been under performing...we weren’t expected to though, outside of our own fans who still believe we should be a top 5 side...

Please explain how recruitment as been good when we are worse as a team than last season, it’s quite simple if we’re no going forwards or we’re stood still, we are going backwards. This should of been addressed when we scraped in 5th but could of finished 8th. I don’t understand why people are standing for a better performance or a better effort, we are getting beat every week 5 from 27, we are sleepwalking into oblivion

We’ve gone backwards because in his first two seasons we were very lucky with injuries and the teams with much more financial power than us who we finished above have been able to go out and spend big money and sign top quality players we can’t afford. On the whole in his time I think Chester has had more successes than failures in his signings, especially when you take into account the budget he has to work with...

You say he deserves the chance to see out this farce of a season... Why does he deserve that chance? What have you seen in the last 5/10/15/20/25 games which warrants that chance? Injuries aren't an excuse, every club has them. Covid isn't an excuse, every club has had to deal with it.

We had our worst season under Chester last year and were within minutes of being relegated, and have gone backwards both on the pitch and with recruitment.

Maybe he needs to start listening to the fans that want the team to progress instead of listening to the ones who are happy for the club to sleep walk into relegation and likely administration

Because he had two good seasons finishing 5th.

Last season after the round 14 win at Huddersfield (half way through the season) we were 3rd in the league before we were crippled with injuries. Are you saying injuries played no part last season after such a good start when we were at full strength?

This season pre lockdown wasn’t the worst and I’m prepared to write this season off as it’s clearly having an affect.