With all due respect Matt, if you have a look at the table I think you'll find that for now at least, we are!! Well beating last years Grand finalists and after almost half the league season we have won all our games and have the bet points difference in the league. I'll bet you wish widnes had been as 'ordinary'!!



This is as one eyed and insular analysis of last nights game as you'll get, which you may see as a good thing but thankfully isn't the norm on here.
The penalty count was massively in Widnes favour. Yes, Leahy is a pedantic little 2@, and it's unfortunate that another of his curious decisions infinately led to us having the field position to drop a goal. But considering the penalty count and poor completion rate by rovers - Widnes had more than ample opportunities to exploit that - but didn't.
The widnes defence was the best we've played against - I have no idea how you could conclude otherwise??? A team that has scored tries for fum ammassing almost 40 points a game was restricted to 9!! Poor defence or poor analysis of the game????
The wrestle tackle to this observer was almost to perfection in slowing the game down preventing our flow - tho differentiating that and the 'holding down' calls that went against us boarded on the disgraceful at times and reflected the ineptitude of Leahy who appeared to respond everytime the crowd yelled at him when Widnes were penned back in their own half!!
Scene from Kes??? Unnecessary and daft!



Ainscough was cak - Gannon not much better. Your pivots were a thorn all night.
A cracking game of blood and snot rugby played in a manner I remember years ago when scores like this were the norm (thanks to MLP for jogging that memory)! To repeat - it's unfortunate that another of Leahy's strange one's was involved in the build up to the drop goal - but see the game for what it was! A belting game of rugby where both teams gave their all and looked absolutely spent at the end!!!!

However, if it suits you to hold on to the frankly childish notion that a team that is the top of the league (for now) are all cheats and despite a lopsided penalty count the ref conspired against Widnes - then fair do's! I'll not lose any sleep owd cock!

Best of luck for the remainder of the season chaps.

Widnes fans - superb during the minutes silence, thank-you it was really appreciated.
As for the game, we were below par in attack compared to recent performances but credit has to go to Widnes who played a good game, especially given your injury situation.
Decisions by this ref never suprise me and I think he spoiled what was a good competitive game which could have gone either way.Don't know what the penalty count was but i'm sure it was heavily in favour of Widnes but accusations that we are cheats earlier in this thread is a little strong
At the moment we deserve to be where we are in the league but the Grand Final is a long way off and there is time for the fortunes to change so we'll enjoy what we have at the moment.
Finally a comment on our fans, on the whole we are well behaved, loud and boistrous but nothing more than that.One or two step over the line and should quite rightly be condemed. Everwhere we go we are accused of being troube makers which is unfair on the vast majority especially when provocation from home supporters never gets mentioned by those complaining. Leaving the ground last night I was labelled Yorkshire scum by one of your fans, totally unprovoked.Now, I didn't react and most of your supporters were great but clubs have to look at their own supporters before attacking other fans behaviour.

Good luck for the rest of the season and I hope you bring plenty of fans to the Big Fellas stadium (Formerly known as .............)

There were a few incidentes of holding back by Fev, but I'm sure we did something the same or equivalent. I know 2 wrongs don't make a right but this stuff happens. A few people will sadly be one eyed and be hypocritic. Good atmosphere for a Friday night match, Sure we could have had 4,000 on Monday bank holiday.

what made me chuckle was the crowd! In the play off game there appeared to be almost 2 - 2.5k more there than there was last night! Yet the crowd figures were similar! It did make me chuckle. Maybe this year we might get home advantage eh? Lol!
Still maintain it was a cracking game last night.

Maybe just a tad bitter there bud.
Instead of spewing tripe like the above why don't you appreciate a good hard game of rugby played by 2 very good teams who were both defensively excellent.

As a side note, I don't attend away games at Widnes and haven't since 1989 when i was beaten by over 20 thugs one who had a piece of wood with a nail stuck out of the end, my injuries kept me in hospital for 3 months and ranged from 2 shattered cheekbones, broken jaw, smashed nose, burst eye sockets, broken ribs and 28 stitches in my knee from said nail. the attack only stopped when 4 locals got out of thier car to help me (they couldn't just drive past as i was being attcked in the middle of the road), and subsequently probably saved my life, I just choose not to come to matches there I don't label everyone there as thugs, by the same token you shouldn't call a team of rugby players cheats when clearly they aren't . If you had played better than us you would have won simple as, if you hadn't let toulouse ship 40 odd past you you would have won and with a bit more composure against fax you would have won, then you'd be top of the league instead of us.

get over it and move on.

I thought we played ok without being brilliant. I counted at least 5 times we knocked on in the 1st half when we were deep in the Fev half. I bet had Fev been given the same possession and field position we had, they would have scored mored than the 8 than we did.

I thought we started the game all wrong. Our 1st two sets we dinked little kicks on half way instead of getting fev down the other end of the field. We invited the pressure and it was no surprise to see Fev score with the 1st meaningful attack of the game.

All in all Fev looked a bit sharper than than us in both attack and defence. Hopefully though we'll get better as time goes on as I bet it was very hard to read players like Netherton, who was in his 1st game. Obviously the no9 position is one of if not the most important position on the field and it wasn't until the 2nd half that we were able to take the game to Fev. Reading the fev board on totalrl they have said we looked toothless and only scored when they went down to 12 men. Although I thought we scored our 2nd when they were back to 13, I do agree we looked a bit clueless at times and players were recieving the ball stood still not really knowing what to do next. The last point, I also thought we are also missing a big man in the middle. Dave Allen went very well, Doran and Gannon gave it their all as usual but I thought we did struggle at times in the middle. Not sure if JJ is quite up to speed yet and obviously Heckenburg hasn't played so again hopefully that will be an area we don't have to worry about - well especially if we could get either Haggy or Pickersgill back before the end of the season.

Bit disappointed, but was a good game and we weren't that far off where we need to be so can't be too downhearted. As for the ref - we couldn't really blame him too much. Can't remember him giving Fev much that they didn't deserve, and as a lot fo Fev fans have said we probably had the far more penalties than they did. My main criticism of the ref was the offsides - he pinged us for it quite early on in the 1st half, but it appeared he let them be offside time and time again. There was one incident where we played it, the ball was passed to JJ who was tackled almost at the same time he recieved the ball, JJ went down and the ref then gave a knock on, that no-one else seemed to see. Probably the main reason why Leahy is getting so much stick from the Widnes fans though is because of how the game was decided.

i tell you what i would do, if the people (they know who they are) were to meet me at your ground and shake hands with me and have a pint, then watch another quality game of rugby league. until then i'll keep my distance thanks.

like me (i'm 37 by the way it happened the day before my 16th birthday), they would be a similar age although the one with the wood and a couple of others were well in their 20's, they will have families and i would hope be better people now with principles and respect for other human beings

You find out who it was get them to get in touch with me on here and i'll see you all next year. i can't say fairer than that.

If that had happened to me I wouldn't go back to that ground either. But I don't think anyone has anything to fear these days.

Don't think anyone's mentioned that it was our 3rd game in 8 days and Fev's 2nd. That must have had an effect.

There are plenty of excuses for not putting on 100%, and I think we could've won if we'd cut out a few stupid errors. Like using the overlap correctly.

Didn't look down to fatigue to me, just some dumb rugby (Doran never fails), some daft penalties and failure to take chances when they came your way.

Vikings 4 ever sums up the game really well.I think once we get everyone fit onto the Park and start to gel, i think we will be a force.We missed a big front rower like Haggerty who would punch holes up the middle.Hopefully Heckenberg will do that once fit.His stats are impressive on average yards made, so i am looking forward to seeing him play.We need to complete our sets more often, and the kicking game needs to improve.

He does fail at playing the dumb rugby quite often. He's been excellent for us this season and has stood up well during the injury crisis.
Didn't really notice anything too bad from Doran the other night either considering the constant sillyness going on in the tackle whenever he and Gannon were put to ground. In fact I thought they were restrained.
Not sure he can be can be blamed for being tackled when he and Webster made the break either.. Webster came back inside after giving it Doran and it made sense to me for him to look for more support.. He was never going to make the line himself.
By the same token.. Dave Allen's attempted pass to Flynn was worth a shot to. If it had come off it was a certain try and fair play to Allen for trying something a bit different.