panthers 36-26 workington

Panthers booked their place in the next playoff round with a hard fought win over a dogged town outfit. The first half panthers trailed 14-0, down to a combination of dire refereeing and some sloppy play in attack.
Panthers nearly scored off the first set of 6, after hobson broke through, choosing imo the wrong option passing inside, however the supporting forber was taken before he caught the ball, yet a knock on was given, a few more bombed opportunities, many construed by halliwell who imo was worst player on pitch by a long way, offloads fired directly behind him, not looking to see if there were support runners just flinging it away, and going for glory rather than giving the easy pass for a try in the corner, along with poor discipline, sums up his performance. panthers were down to 12 men twice in the first half, the first came after a knock on was given after a blatant trip on llewellyn came against panthers, hobson appealing for a knock on to the touch judge, was then sinbinned for appealing. keaveney was also binned later in the half for holding down, however it was the first sinbin spell that cost panthers as 10 points were shipped in this time, while another 4 were scored later in the half, workington were also down to 12 late in the first half after the centre no.29 took it upon himself to start swinging at munro.

2nd half and a response was needed, we got it within 10 minutes as with some slick handling clough was sent in under the posts, ainscough then scored twice followed swiftly by mcully and by the hour mark, panthers led 24-14, workington didnt back down and scored with a quick dart from dummy half with the scrum half? stretching out to score, however this was merely a small reprieve for town as halliwell finished off a slick move 5 minutes later to stretch panthers lead. With 5 minutes to go munro burrowed over to put the game out of reach, before town grabbed a late consolation after hobson binned again for shouting at a tackled player , despite everyone seeing the player held up, the 4th official disagreed and the try was given.

good 2nd half display to get the win, but will need to be better next week at home to rochdale after they convincingly thrashed south wales, but a wins a win, one step closer to promotion, up the panthers!

my m.o.m. ainscough, looked dangerous every time he had possession and took his tries very well, including the 80m intercept try, while also solid at the back and when moved to centre saved a few tries too.

We will need to be a whole lot better than that next week or we will have the joy of Workington next season. Far too many penalties (deserved and undeserved).

What is the situ re loan players now in the play offs? No Vaughan or the lad from Halifax (Roberts?)

Hard fought win today against a big workington team who as previously have tired in second half of games. 1st half we were shocking and werent at the races, second half some great rugby and our class shone through. Fair play to worky they did thier homework and caused us problems all game. Will have to step it up next week against rochdale but the play-offs are knock out rugby so its all about the result and not the performance at the business end of the season. Just a quick mention about the referee - A joke and thats been polite. Some decisions im still not sure what he was watching????? Up the panthers

Ah right.
From listening to the squad announcement before the match I didn't hear their names mentioned. Must have been too busy stopping sly buggers nipping over the wall to get in for free lol

Think the situation with Hobson and referees is getting beyond a joke. Unless Hobson swore at the ref for that first yellow, then that was a ridiculous call and just highlights that the refs as a collective have a problem with Hobson. Everyone knows Hobson is a timebomb on the pitch and his biggest fault is to give away highshots (which he gets overpenalised for anyway), but it would seem that referees are now trying to provoke a reaction from him. Logic suggests that the captaincy should be taken off him for his own good so that he can focus on his game, but I can't see MC doing this as he dislikes the rfl and won't give in to the powers that be.

Least the best rugby team won at the end of the day, as I would be asking to be paid to watch Worky on a regular basis- think watching paint dry is more entertaining. Markill said it all when he pointed out they had one of their centres on the wing...

As for the Worky yellow card, this incident was worse than Radford on Sat, as Damian did little to provoke the flurry of punches other than push the guy off the man on the floor at the previous tackle. I would have given him a yellow from a personal point of view, but where is the consistency?

The attack on damo was nothing short of assault. Hitting someone when thier back is turned is nothing short of cowardly, then the marrow fans had the gaul to argue with me that it was damo that started it and should have been yellow carded??? People have a go at hobson all the time(some times justified) but seems every team we play is full of saints and hobbo is the villian???? Was it mcdonald that lead with elbow but just a penalty nothing else, not even a talking to??? The words Victimisation come to mind.
I agree bout taking the captains armband from hobbo, if nothing else to protect him. We question decisions every week on the terraces so imagine how hard it is on the pitch to accept baffling refereeing decisions???? UTP