id sooner have our halfs creating and taking the line on than worry about a long kicking game.

I'm not necessarily defending Holdsworth here but without him we wouldn't have got to Wembley. The 18th man played its very best game this year at the same time Holdsworth won MOM. He has become the uber scape goat and his inconsistent performances probably merit that to a degree. Personally I think his head injury has reduced him as a half.

Incidentally I think the 18th man is rapidly becoming one of our worst performers.

I would agrea on that last night aside from 5 minutes after half time

Good post. Pretty much how I feel about things.

I could go with all of that if we had some structure in our play but we're a disorganised rabble with poor basic skills, poor backing up and a distinct lack of dummy runners.

brian smith was way ahead of his time when he was at hull. (remember the crows nest in the best stand so he could get a better view of the play?) nowadays others have caught up obviously.

to widen the debate a bit should the club bring in a couple of new assistants to help him? especially on the attacking stuff, working with individuals on technical stuff, specialities etc. andy hay left and nobody really replaced him

Part of me would like to see Gentle given next season but I also wouldn't be disappointed if Pearson made the decision to get rid now. I'm torn as I really I like the improvements we've shown defensively, although how much credit does Radford get for that? Also Gentle has not been afraid to give young players a shot and we've seen the benefit of this with some of the players that have come through and our now seen as first teamers.

The problem is simply our attack, it hasn't improved in the slightest, we still lack structure and any real kind of gameplan. Our forward don't offload, we still don't support enough and we still don't have consistent dummy runners as part of our attacking structure. We still don't get the ball wide often enough and players in the main seem quite dumb when it comes to making decisions.

I also don't think he has done enough to improve the established players games. Yeaman has shown no improvement and Watts has gone backwards. This maybe the players but I don't see his influence and players showing enough if any improvement.

Also his recruitment has been patchy and this idea of a smaller mobile pack has really backfired. Every team needs some size especially in the forwards, it's a must.

I can remember 3 league games where I have been genuinely pleased and impressed and entertained with our performance. Wire away, Wigan at home and Leeds for an hour. The rest has been fairly miserable and over a season it's just not good enough.

Downside to a new coach is how long it takes to get his team, if the rumours are right and Radford is in line for the job then that transition might be a bit easier.

Either way for me we've not improved this season, we've actually gone backwards and I don't see AP accepting that.

I'd like to see Gentle get another year, but I think if we play garbage on Friday it will be curtains for him. While sixth is not a disastrous year, it's the manner in which we have played concerns me, apart from Warrington away, the cup semi final and the home game against Wigan, the last few months have been poor. Our lack of attack may boil down to an unsettled half back pairing throughout the year, but this should have been addressed pre-season, when Mcgoldrick was looked over in favour of Galea, which left us with an abundance of second rowers and no cover in the halves. The pack, as mentioned elsewhere is lightweight, two areas that maybe have been mis-managed and cost this season. Anyway I hope he stays and gets the chance to rectify the problems

Spot on. Sums up my thoughts

Wasn't our defence pretty good before Radford?



Perhaps you can tell us when Gentle has said he wants a "smaller" mobile pack



I guess it depends on what floats your boat, but I think finishing 6th with a CC final is a bit of progress.
We have played pretty well against the better sides.

Season is not over yet. We are at the business end of the season when the winning/losing really matters.

Personally I don’t care whether we finish 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th, if we don’t get to any finals.

I suspect the only thing which may save him (other than a completely unexpected run in the play offs) is the CC final appearance. pearson may view the performance as a missed opportunity to lift the cup though and get rid anyway

Top post,

Friday is Gentle's last game. He was told a while ago.

What if we win?? Who takes charge??

Okay, I was assuming we won't win which isn't a bad assumption given how god awful we are.