Widnes fan here, we use Trust In Widnes as or forum....

Firstly, Kevin Brown isn't that big a loss as the media tell you and he wasn't as good as the media told you.

Personally I think we've been dealt an unlucky hand. First of all, our best player wanting to leave (for bottom of the league !) and leaving the club no choice but to sell him at a late stage. That left our halfbacks as Mellor and Gilmore, two good, young, British halfbacks. Mellor then got a knee injury in the Christmas pre season friendly. That left Gilmore and Bridge as our half backs. Gilmore then got a serious ankle injury in our first game of the season against Huddersfield. We've now got a half back partnership of Bridge and Craven. This is our 4th half back partnership since November through not really any circumstances in the clubs control.

Add to that our other injuries. On Friday we'll have 9 first players out: Ah Van, Mellor, Gilmore, O'Carroll, Dean, Gerrard, Burke, Manuokafoa and Ashall in a 31 man squad. Only three of these injuries have been sustained during training, the rest in games. We'll have 4 props missing against one of the biggest packs in the league!

As for Denis Betts, I'm not sure what else he could do with this squad. He's done wonders with the club. We've got the second smallest budget in the league and have finished in the top 8 twice in three years on poor crowds and only finished bottom once.

No excuses though, we haven't been anywhere near good enough. We will get progressively better as the season goes on. Having said that though we are only 1 point less than the same corresponding fixtures last season.

Hull to win by around 28 and Widnes to finish 11th above Huddersfield.

I am really hurt by the criticism i receive on here from some posters like ccs so i dare not criticise Griffin whos overall play in his early days with the club has flattered to deceive but he is defensively weak for such a big player.
If you watch his attempt to tackle Heremaia it was not just poor it was pathetic
Its his achilles heel and was pointed out by several Salford supporters when he signed for us but you normally take their comments with a pinch of salt because they are losing a player but they are correct from what we have seen so far.

We were poor against Catalans due to awful discipline and ball retention not purely Kelly's absence.
When he went off last night the game was already won.
We had the 3rd best attack in the league last year without a genuine 6 and it's early days.
All teams have influential players that can be targeted, that's sort of how it works. Investing all that energy in "worrying" about it is your choice, obviously, won't make any difference. Personally I just look forward to seeing him play.

Thought Widnes put up a good effort for the first half. Be interesting to see how they get on when they get some of their injured players back.
Kelly was sublime. Easily NRL standard. Fonua also impressed with his go forward. Can't wait to see how we go when the grounds firm up.

fonua was like a battering ram for most of the game.