One thing that does concern me, is Balmforth not making that squad, 21 players and 5 out, might again be reading more into this, but don't see him getting a chance this season at Hull.

I wouldn't read too much into it. Presumably a 21 man squad has a mix of players to cover any injuries that occur prior to the game and most of our missing players are backs so we need some redundancy in the squad there. All of our players that can play hooker are fit (Houghton, Brown, Smith and, like it or not, Cator) so you could argue he is surplus to requirements in the squad.
That's my take anyway.

Walker
Martin
Sutty
Scott
Darnell
Brown
Smith
Pele
Mint
Essesse
Ligi
Okunbur
Cator

Brown
Hoy
Ashworth
Lane

Alleged team, no real surprises given who’s available. Would have liked to have seen Stavely over lane.

Yeah agree with all that, just don't get why Lane keeps getting in.

Only real big decision is Smith or Hoy, guess Smith impressed more in pre season and more of a natural halfback.

Agreed, but think with Brown not been a real 7 as well, Smith seems like a more sensible option to give us a bit more balance in the halves. Hoy needs a big season for me, but Walker will be number 1 when fit.

Smith probably has a better long kicking game than Hoy? Which will be important in the early sets of the game to make sure we're clearing the ball as far down the pitch as possible. M
Not sure with Lane, he's not someone who can come off the bench and provide impact to the team

Yeah think you are both right with regards Smith over Hoy.

Got a good feeling about Morgan Smith – I think he'll be a great little player for us. Scores a lot of trys, always backing up breaks and is a pretty good tackler too. He's in my fantasy team so hopefully he can do some good for me.

Sensible post and agree, think the part in bold is spot on too for me.

Think it's really where we struggled in the Wigan friendly too. Fash and Houghton went off pretty early in the game leaving us with limited options.

Wigan brought on Mago, Dupree, Walters and Leeming. Its a night and day difference compared to what we have at the minute

Whilst Wigan’s bench was far superior to ours i think that was magnified by having an extended bench.

I don’t think a bench of Ashworth, Jack Brown and Smith or Hoy is that bad.

Big season for Jack Brown. Time for him to step up and show what he can do.

Yeah I'd agree to an extent. The unlimited interchanges would've helped too.

I thought Jack Brown had a decent game when he came on. Smith's philosophy should suit his style

yes agree
only two things come to mind
1) Smith doesnt like him
2)Smith doesnt rate him

Can see Hoy on the bench for this one.Need more at half back than he has so far shown but decent cover if we need to change things at half back or full back.
Pele wont like it but i would hold him back and give him extended game time off the bench so that we have some impact on interchanges

Think we need the win more than they do.
Defeat for rovers will leave them with some egg on their faces, but I wouldn't see it necessarily derailing their year.

Defeat for us, on the other hand, will deflate even further what little gas there is in the Fc balloon, especially if it becomes a convincing defeat. The gloom surrounding the supporter base could become suffocating before anyone else has even started their season!

I've seen a number of derbies down the years where the end result has totally defied all pre-match predictions, I'm hoping tomorrow night is going to be another one of those.
A win, and we are all going to be in a much happier frame of mind going forward. Let's keep the faith, as always.