Any fresh injury news for the hectic easter fixtures?

Raynor should be fit again so looks like a fully fit squad apart from Lee who is out long-term. Some new signings to possibly come as well.

Really Port? REALLY?

Well perhaps you should get some one with an education (that's learnin' in your language) to read it to you. Why not get the seven year old that writes your posts out for you to do it.

Couldn't be further from the truth. Mike Turner is 100% involved and is one of the men in charge of marketing which is his forte. He inherited a shambles at the start of 2009 after the people who'd previously run the club made mistakes, ran it into the ground and said "there you go I'm off, I'll leave you to it". The club was on its knees by March due to things not being done properly from July 2008. Leighton Samuel had then run out of money and it was left to Mike Turner to try and run things single handed while at the same time searching for new investors. Whatever mistakes he made (everyone does, we're human), he's the one who struck the deal with Wrexham to save the club. He's now the man in charge of marketing and sponsorship up there and you can work the results out for yourself. And who do you think brought in Brian Noble, Iestyn Harris and Jon Sharp?

Thanks Gutterfax. That's the offical attendance figures. Samuel had a history of exaggerating figures either way. For the fire officer you can subtract 500. For the RFL you can add 500.

So when things go wrong the man in charge can blame the previous incumbents but when things go well it's all him?

Did the RFL task force (you know, the ones who got Brian noble on board and who still pay him) have nothing to do with it?

I didn't know you posted on here Mike.

Sometimes there's just too much to do to save things. Like I said, he made mistakes, everyone does, but I know how committed he was in trying to save the club when it was is in the crap and I firmly believe that if he had been at the club from 2007 rather than a certain other person whose initials would be Dreadfully Tiresome to mention, things would have been a lot better. Perhaps some of the same errors would have been made but you can be rest assured that a sponsorship deal with stupid conditions wouldn't have been signed and the marketing for Super League would have started in July 2008 not December.

No it's not just Mike up there, he's mainly the sponsorship and marketing guru now, something he does best as can be seen from previous clubs. The good thing about the Crusaders now is that there are at least three times the staff doing things from the marketing, media and administration.

The other things that are going well up there compared to Bridgend are...

Wrexham having a dedicated local daily paper - Bridgend may have had the Gazette which was very supportive but it was a weekly and if it's in a daily it's thrust home more. There was the Echo but it's Cardiff-based and had other priorities. Up in Wrexham, The Leader gives the Crusaders front and back page on a semi-regular basis and are very supportive.

The council - The Wrexham council saw Super League as an event straight away and immediately promoted the Leeds game around their town with banners, posters and flyers etc. They even did a mailshot and have seconded one of their media guys to assist in writing articles and organise match days. The Bridgend Council allegedly refused to do this as "they didn't see Super League as an event".

Lack of competition - in South Wales, there are eight more full-time professional clubs, in North Wales there are none and they wanted a team to support. The population of South Wales may be a lot more but there's a lot more competition for the money too.


However this week, the Crusaders are back down here, they're a better team on the field too as we all know and I think this will be a game and night to remember against Quins.

Fair play CC, I hope you enjoy the game. I'll be doing other things myself. Either shopping or rendering by the looks of it.

Hey Cardiff Cymru

Grendel used to think I was Mike Turner , now he thinks its you

I'm not denying that he tried his best to save the club last year. But that doesn't mean that he is in any way competent. He may be good at sorting out sponsorships etc, but that's not what the original post was about, and like I say he now has nothing to do with the daily running of the club and it's a lot better for it.

Fair play to Turner, the marketing in Wrexham has clearly been much better than in Bridgend. Whether money, the council, or whatever were the main constraints - I have no idea, but many, including myself, will not forget the lies Turner fed us.

Love Crusaders. Hate Turner.

There'll be a couple of thousand Black and Yellow scarves on Thursday, I reckon.

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