You only have to look at Hull KR to see what the right people in charge of a club can achieve. Granted being one of the best in the Championship is far better than being in the bottom of SL in terms of entertainment and success but we've got to think medium to long term. For Widnes that means getting to Super League and progressing from there.

From a revenue and exposure point of view it has to be Super League, of course we will take beatings in the first few years but it is important that we can build and with Steve O'connor at the helm this club is going places. The longer any club stays in this division then they will struggle to survive as the money just simply isnt there unless you have sugar daddy. Thankfully we do have one but in time he wants us to stand on our own 2 feet and the only way we can do that is by getting in Super League. Widnes is a rugby league town and we need super league, you cannot beat playing Wire/Saints/Wigan in front of 8,000+ at the Stobarts and all clubs would appreciate our large away following.

Championship or Super League? Super League by a country mile.

No teams in our league really stand a chance yet. I'm happy with staying in the Championship until we REALLY are ready.

By 2012 Widnes will be fully ready and prepared to make the step up.

I should think so, you're on a promise this time around. It all seems to hinge on who can get a new home built quickest and not what a the team brings to the pitch, it's ludicrous (and by no means was that a pop at your club by the way).

But you could also say we will be, Barrow and Leigh..

After a couple of seasons getting beaten most weeks that away following would fall dramatically. I agree with everything else you say though and in Steve o'connor you appear to have a good man at the top.

We were getting a hammering for two seasons before we were eventually relegated. We actually increased gates at the time to nearly 7,000. Several SL clubs don't get that now.

Everything is ready at Widnes with our support base, stadium and infrastructure, financial backing and sponsorship and youth development.

What this statement from Tricky Didkie does, is show the licence criteria up for what it actually is; a complete lie!

How can he possibly pre-judge, whether or not a current SL club be worthy of demotion, two years before a decision is to be made?

RL is a complete, and corrupt, farce.

No , what it does tell us is that he knows there will not be an increase in the SKY deal next time , so to honour the promise he made to the clubs in the Championship [ basically you lot ] somebody will have to be sacrificed

Is it a good thing ?

From a Widnes point of view, yes.

From a general RL point of view it is worrying.

It still adds fuel to the fire of the RFL's corruption, and totally exposes the licence criteria for what it is.

Did we really need any more convincing of that ?

I completely agree with Pepe... previously Lewis stated that any club consistently underperforming would be at Risk... we have had 1 full season of the franchise system. Barely enough to establish any consistency of anything.

By saying already that one team is out goes to show that this is and was a complete sham.

There are a few liar clubs out there who I can only hope are on borrowed time but something tells me the RFL, liars and crooks that they are, will listen to another load of nonsense about portacabins and ground clearance and will simply draw the relegatee out of a hat and promote someone Gallic who hasn't reached a final or NRC win despite what they promised. Broken promises are as common as rats in the sewers at Red Hall.

I've been reading a few old threads coming from about the time of the licensing decisions. There were an awful lot of cocksure, know-it-all fans from SL clubs coming on here and rubbing it in. An awful lot. It would give me a certain pleasure to see them if no one else go through what we did. To the true fans of the club going down, I simply say good luck and I hope your club survives in this division long enough to see the day when the RFL abandons this suicidal nonsense and goes back to P & R. As for this latest Dickie Lewis answer, he will say anything and mean nothing. He is a snake and I don't give any statement of his so much as an ounce of credence until it happens.

what he said!!