you wont get many people on here to take you up on this one The Mr Positives , He Talks the Talk but cant Walk the Walk

cross and kite started up front for us today , both of whom have fitness issues , so it only makes sense that we only have one prop on the bench. We did however have two hookers on the bench so that the in-form jon clarke could start. What wonderful managerial skills. DOH

You've just come up a division and signed a few cast off's from other teams. Your gonna get a fair few tonkings and a handful of wins. What were you really expecting?
It wasn't that long ago that Huddersfield were the whipping boys...and Catalans too. They've stuck it out though and have slowly built excellent super league sides.

I know it's not pleasant but just be patient and be glad you're back in the big time.

All best!

(From a Saints fan)

It cannot be pleasant watching your team get tonked week in week out but the fact is the system we have in Super League makes it very difficult for a team winning a franchise to assemble a squad good enough to compete in the timescale allowed. If you really thought you were going to be competing for the top 8 in your first season back then you are very misguided.

Probably easy to say looking in from outside but you need a degree of patience and accept the fact it may well take the 3 years before the next franchise application to build a team that can genuinely compete most weeks.

See you on Saturday !

No-one thought that we'd be top 8 - NO-ONE!

But the standard of RL, from a fully pro squad, is atrocious. We are getting, not just beaten, but hammered week in week out. The two home wins are looking more and more like some strange anomaly.

Fans just wanted to see a well organised team defend well and show a bit of fight and spirit. What we have is a total shambles that is conceding record defeats.

The atmosphere, amongst the Widnes fans on Monday, was the worst I've ever known. It was like a morgue. The Bradford fans were noisy and e enjoying themselves, despite what their club is going though. We, on the other hand, are plain sick of the same old . People are clearly voting with their feet, as we only got a crowd of 5,600, with about 1,000 Bulls fans in attendance. If you think that is bad, and it is, wait until you see how many turn out against the Saints in the Challenge Cup game.

Betts is out of his depth and incompetent. He needs to go ASAP.

I hear what you are saying and having only seen a couple of your games I'm not in a position to argue with you, if your watching week in week out I respect what your saying. What I would say is that your gaffer can only play with the squad he has and on paper it looks pretty weak. I just think it will take you another couple of seasons to get competitive. When you get promoted at short notice your left to recruit from the scraps that are left and perhaps some of the squad retained from the lower level simply cannot cut it in the top flight.

There's more than enough there to be staying in touch in the games most weeks. Maybe not winning, but giving a good account of themselves. Most of our players have both Super League and or NRL experience. A couple of hammering's here and there would be understandable, but it's nearly every week. Go and look at the league table and check out our points against total.

Wakey were in an even worse position than we were, but they are at least competitive. What I am seeing is inept coaching and a lack of fitness. Defensively, we are literally all over the place. The ruck area is a mess too. This is down to coaching. It has very little to do with the quality of the players.

Like I said, fans are starting to vote with their feet, and that is very dangerous for any club. I have no doubt, that with a more experienced and proven coach, we could get the players we have firing. Dennis Betts couldn't even cut it in the Championship, with the wealthiest club in the competition. This isn't his first season with us, and it isn't a knee-jerk reaction.

Dennis Betts is definitely responsible for this situation and, if he doesn't go soon, we will haemorrhage support. That is the bottom line.

Just anyone with a sound knowledge of defensive structure and how to win the play the ball will do.

It's clearly evident where our problems lie. Fair enough we have had plenty of injuries and this has taken its toll as we never had the strongest of squads. Yesterday we let Bradford get quick play the balls and we couldnt defend against this. When we did slow them down we were forcing them into mistakes but we never done this for long enough to win the game. Our defence out wide is a shambles with players not sliding across leaving Ah Van exposed, our best two forwards are Paddy Flynn and Ah Van who make more yards than our forwards. A decent coach would have resolved this situation, it's clear Betts is out of his depth, he was at championship lever even more so in super league.

It is the basics, and the basics are the minimum requirements at any level. I do not expect us in our first year to be serving up gold plated rugby week in week out. Neither do I expect us to win the majority of games. But I do expect any team to be able to commit to doing the basics well. The tackling was awful, they felt they could beat our line single-handed, and they could. It is not the result for me at the moment, as stated I am not expecting to win too many, it is the display.
For me it needs a clean sweep with experience coming in, Kerr or Noble for me.
I am approaching 50, have supported from when my age was in single figures, home and away. But I am now limiting myself to my season ticket only. I will not go to any cup games or away. I am prepared to see this season out but SOC needs to give us hope, let us see what the future can bring. At the moment I haven't a clue what is going on, either on or off the field.
If Betts is to be given time then the coaching staff need to earn their money, Get them organised, working as a team and giving their all. Do that and you may keep the crowd with you. Many more displays like that on Sunday and fans will walk...

Rant over

My opinion for what its worth is get rid of Betts and get in Simmons, ok we sacked him but i think he will do a good job for your club, correct whats been said tho its gona take time for Widnes to get up to the level of super league look at Catalans..... keep faith i for one am glad to see Widnes where they belong in the top flight

I don't see why not even if it is only till the end of season. Betts had a poor record in the Championship and I gave him the benefit of the doubt for Super League. Whether it's him or the players that aren't or both, we need to change to freshen things up because yesterday Widnes were so so poor.

im not knocking Betts but i think you need a coach who will get you doing the basics right and stop u letting so many points in, as early people have said the prob with getting hammered every week fans tend to stop attending games, im sure it will be a different story saturday cant see it being as one sided as people think

Not trying to play devils advocate, but are there any coaches that could do better with the current squad.

Royce Simmons,
Brian Noble
John Kear

????

if it was up to me i wouldn't get another coach yet , i'd simply tell betts and cullen that they're not working and we need to nip it in the bud before the attendances plummet , and ask Terry o'connor to take over in a caretaker capacity until the end of the season.