Sounds as though it was a good performance. It was certainly exciting listening to radio Manchester. Either way, we need Widnes to be strong and competitive and I think you will find most true RL fans wish you you well. It is the first year back, you will hopefully have a stronger team in the coming years, particularly with your up and coming youngsters.

To be fair it is really easy to do, you've been a laughing stock for large parts of the season.

However, as I mentioned on another thread, this is a widnes team which has performed in spells (short, one game spells). It will be interesting to see how you back up on Saturday - I'm expecting a much more difficult game than most.

Aaaaaaaaaannyway!!! Back on topic.

I really don't see us putting up too much of a fight on Saturday to be honest. Our form away from home this season has been nothing short of abysmal and I expect Warrington to run away with this one early doors.

In terms of a corner turned? I actually think that on the whole we have been good value for money at home this season and Sunday's performance did not surprise me. The first half against Salford and the Bradford match are the obvious blips but otherwise I think we've competed quite well.

Lets bear in mind that this is Widnes's first season back in superleague. I don't recall Wire doing anything special until Smith arrived and you spent lots of money. We'll have a better idea of their progress when they've had 3 years experience.

If we win or come close on Saturday, then we'll have turned a corner. But somehow I just can't see it as we never back up a good performance and our squad is wafer thin right now.

Widnes were always going to be the whipping boys this season and i say this without my Wire hat on, a better judgement (unfortunatley for Chemic fans) will be in the 2014 season.

We were good yesterday but a win would have changed a lot. Only the ones who went, would have seen that we shown some ability. Unfortunately those stay at home fans would just see at as another defeat with 40 points put passed us. 4600 widnes fans, if we were winning or had won 5/6/7 games so far, I do believe there is potential to bring in 6000 plus home fans. I'll always be here.

On the I pitch scenario, it's looking a little dubious to me with the types of injuries that are occurring on it. May not be anything to do with the pitch, we'll see how the rest of the games go. Seems unusual however that they train on the pitch 5 times a week, no injuries but when it's game day, that's when they crop up.

Widnes can score points (wigan, Saints 'cup game' and Catalans) but we all know that their defence is very leaky.
Vikings have a 3 year license, judge them in 2014 people, unless you're a troll. (from a Leigh fan)

Hang on a minute. Where did I judge Widnes in my post? I was under no illusions about how much of a struggle your first year back in SL was going to be. Maybe it was some of your own expectations that you poorly managed. I do hope and I do expect that by year 3 you will have made really good progress on the pitch.

I only stated that if Warrington have the big guns back in the team on Saturday, you could be looking at a good hammering. Would you not agree?

It was said that you turned a corner against Catalan but when all is said and done you got beat and had 42 points put on you in the process. We'll see how much of a corner you've turned on Saturday.

to be honest i am a wire fan but i watch a lot of widnes games (as long as they dont clash with the wire) as my wife is a demic i mean chemic. your team is lacking an experienced and or galvanized spine to your team 1,6,7,9 that play well together briscoe excellent but your 6 and 7 are both supporting halves neither is a leading half (this is why your attack was more efficient with o'brien in there as he is a leading half) examples are wire briers leader, myler support. leeds - sinfield leader, maguire support. well you get the point. also your pack isn't overly intimidating you have no big hitter like morley, peacock, hock type player the best you have is cross and he is more of a penalty machine than anything else there are a few good players OOC that you should put an offer in for to strengthen it.

but you will come good keep the faith it takes time to build a squad and get up to speed wire were bottom of the league 2002 took us a good few years to get back up to where we are now.

ps sorry for grammar, i had all these thoughts in my head and forgot to look through for grammar.

Not an excuse but we have never had all our best players on the pitch at the same time. Any team will suffer without there best players. It's just the fact that it's Widnes that people are going over the top by saying bring back P&R or reduce the teams to 12 etc.

I would be inclined to agree with most of that, particularly our lack of a genuine pivot in the halves. This is partly because the only genuine halfback we have is Danny Craven. The rest are hookers or utility backs. Widnes need a Lee Briers type player far more than we need a Richie Myler. The problem is that leading halves are much harder to come across, particularly English ones.

Perhaps Matty Smith, if the rumour is true, would be a decent option. He's nothing special but, as long as we don't spend too much on him, could help make us tick a little better and give us the ability to utilise dummy runners - which is something we rarely seem to do.

unfortunately the leading halfback that you had was anthony watts and you missed him badly more than most people will realise

here are a few players OOC that would help the team and would help in the areas i explained previously if you can get them

Ben Jeffries good leader and good directional player,
Manase Manuokafoa hard hitting hard working forward,
Tom Burgess young big player with bags of potential,
Jarrod Sammut skillful player also good at directional play excellent kicking game,
Danny Orr experienced and dont come much better,
Tommy Lee hard hitting versitile forward,
Ben Galea good old fashioned prop,
Vinnie Anderson skillful second rower,
Matty Smith would be a risk but if payed off can be a good player,
Micky Higham bags of experience here and will teach the young hookers alot,
James Laithwaite good young second rower

i have selected a few that you would have more of a chance of getting but in there are some hard hitting forwards that you are missing and a few leading halves

I suspect that most of those players will be re-signed by their clubs at some point. I think Matty Smith and Micky Higham would be two handy acquisitions.

Anthony Watts is actually a hooker, but was going to be used as a stand off. I think it may have worked, but I suppose we'll never know for sure now.