No more words, excuses or scapegoats... time for actions.

I want to see a committed team effort on Thursday against Toulouse. They are where they are for a reason!! Following recent performances and with this game coming relatively quickly on the back of the embarrassment at Barrow and the shoddy win over Fax I want to see an improvement. I want to see that the team know how to defend rather than try and outscore the opposition!

Widnes Vikings v Toulouse Olympique XIII (SKY) 7.30pm
Ref M Thomason TJ A Smith TJ C Waywell RR D Sharpe VR I Smith MC D Campbell
Last 6 games
Widnes Vikings
LWLLWL
27/03/11 Leigh 54 - 16 Widnes
03/04/11 Widnes 76 - 12 York
07/04/11 Leigh 50 - 18 Widnes
17/04/11 Batley 32 - 12 Widnes
21/04/11 Widnes 47 - 36 Halifax
25/04/11 Barrow 30 - 12 Widnes

Toulouse
LLLLLL
19/03/11 Dewsbury 35 - 6 Toulouse
26/03/11 Sheffield 34 - 16 Toulouse
02/04/11 Toulouse 18 - 56 Featherstone
09/04/11 Toulouse 26 - 36 Halifax
17/04/11 Hunslet 28 - 6 Toulouse
25/04/11 Toulouse 10 - 16 York


Team P W D L Pts
Leigh 6 5 1 0 17
Batley 7 5 0 2 16
Sheffield 6 5 0 1 15
Featherstone 6 4 1 1 14
Hunslet 6 3 1 2 11
Widnes 7 3 0 4 10
Barrow 6 2 0 4 9
Halifax 6 1 0 5 6
Dewsbury 6 2 0 4 6
York 6 1 1 4 5
Toulouse 6 1 0 5 4

I'm kind of glad in a small way they got beat. I don't want to be beating teams like hunslet Barrow and Bately by 2,4,6, points and convinving myself that these players are good enough. The players we have at the moment aren't good enough end of. all these defeats will ensure is that the squad will be replaced next season apart from 3 or 4. I hate thinking like this because as a Widnes/rugby fan, the first and last thing you want for your team is a victory.

On the Betts front, he and whoever is assisting him, Oconnor or cullen are bringing these players in so we need to go to the route of this problem and sort it out.

Betts isn't good enough. TOC has been responsible for bringing in poor players and coaches in te past and SOC should get rid of them both along with Cassidy and Banks who also have first team coaching resonsibility.

Can someone explain why we need a Director of Player Welfare probably earning more money than the majority of coaches in this division.

Come on Toulouse !!!!!

Stick it up 'em!!!

Wow.

I have gone past it now Chris,it's boring.I am resigned to another season of mediocrity.I only tuned into the radio at half time yesterday to find out how many points Widnes were losing by.I can't even be d defending the team on the VT either because the 'trolls' do have a point.Morale and enthusiasm amongst the fans is rock bottom thanks to this shower.

Choosing not to go to the away games is not as hard as it was at one point. I'm having to pick and choose this year and tbf I was considering making the trip up to Barrow as I was convinced that the attack was beginning to click into place and that all the focus could now be given to defence.
I'm relieved that I didn't make the trip as I would have blown a gasket at leaving the family behind on one of my days off and spending a pretty penny getting up there and into the ground only to witness a shower like that.

I'm becoming more isolated in the opinion that this team is decent enough to be one of the better sides in this league, but I genuinely think that with proper coaching we would see an immediate improvement.
It's like the games played last year under Wilkinson and Cassidy. Understandably Cullen had far more pressing matters to deal with and I think it showed last year. The minute that Wilkinson took over we saw a more organised team in attack and defence. There were set plays in evidence when attacking the opposition line and our line defence was far more steely.
He would have been an ideal solution for this year but he had other ideas.

This year we have learnt nothing from all the games we have played and that is the most worrying thing.
We have seen real glimpses of the potential this side has. It's up to the coach to get this more consistently.

Toulouse are misfiring - good players in the mix, but just not playing as a team. This Thurs should be a let off.

03/04/11 Widnes 76 - 12 York , hmmmm .. on last week's form, when York won, Widnes 82 - Toulouse 6 ..... time to have fun and open up. But watch the following week when it will get serious again.

We should not have to many problems tonight but not many teams in this division will have problems at home to Toulouse this season.

Just taking out two salient points, Chris. I think Wilkinson would have been a great asset in assessing the fist team matches while not being their coach --- just making known his opinion.

I disagree that we have learnt nothing from the games so far.

We have learnt that when the opponents restart the game after a try or similar we do not automatically get the ball back.
We have learnt that our defence in the middle is not good enough which, to me, says that the players whose job it is to tackle in the middle of the field need some more practice.
We should have learnt that ball handling is part of the game --- too may dropped passes when a scoring opportunity is available.
And finally we should have learnt that giving away penalties anywhere on the field is a big minus point.

Against Toulouse some of that was remedied, but a lot more work has to be done.

Hopefully we can try a few of our top youngsters from the reserves and the academy?Players like Allen need to be dropped and played in the reserves.Seems Scully is not improving, so Alex Gerrard needs to be given a chance.The youngsters from Wigan are great, but they maybe called back to Wigan if needed.Hopefully we can peak at the right time and Gore should play alongside I,Anson, as i feel Mellor may go back to Wigan, unless too far behind the pecking order.