I am really struggling to get enthusiastic for this match, and the players seem to be seriously lacking in motivation too. We need the points badly not just to climb the ladder but to give us a bit of a lift. Surely they have to have some fire in there belly after last weeks dismal effort. Fax by 6.

icon_rolleyes.gif I don't see why they should be more up for it after last week. That shambles followed on from the 26v0 job at Sheffield. Widnes by 12. icon_rolleyes.gif

Looks like Leeds will be sending us 3 forwards for the Widnes match - Ben Littlewood, Tom Nicholson-Watton and Corey Johnson. Johnson was quiet last week but I'd have him on the bench replacing Inman assuming AOB will be back. I'd have Widdop replace Barber in the centre, Barber on the bench. Looks like Gee will be out, so the other 2 Leeds forwards come in for him and the totally ineffective Connor Davies. Salty to replace McComb.

Widnes no great shakes at the mo so I'm going for Fax 22 Widnes 18 after giving the customary points start.

Fairbank has a 3 match ban starting next week

Familiar situation and comments from the fan base and from Finn approaching the game as previous but then again what else can he say when the teams showing no consistent signs of improvement.

Noticed though whilst not being critical the faith and trust in the group type comments that were there earlier are now missing so he knows where the problem is.

The added pressure of getting them to perform looks like it’s showing and he looks tired but the focus and determination is still there.

Anyone know what's wrong with AOB? I understand that Widdop endured an horrendous artificial pitch burn at Sheffield!

Gareth said on Fax YouTube that wasn't a problem.

A close one today couldnt say which way the game might go

Widnes had been going through their traditional mid season slump before their last game but then again Fev's form was awful as well. I hope I am wrong but if we play okay then I reckon we lose a close one and if we play like we have been then Widnes win comfortably. We should see this as a free hit out against a play off team.

Fev lost at home to Donny yesterday which goes to show how truly awful we played last week. It will take a massive improvement to get owt out of today's game against an injury ravaged Widnes who, incidentally, have drafted three dr/loan players in.

Finn out. We’ve only accumulated 4 more wins than Dewsbury all season and that includes beating them! I won’t be spending another £25 this season whilst he’s in charge.

Finn has to go, first he blamed injuries, now he has a lot of those players back and we are still performing terribly. We simply can't afford to keep him.

Catch 22, I doubt they can afford to sack him either. In mitigation it wouldn't matter who was in charge of this team, the majority of the players need getting rid of.

Changing the coach won't make a blind bit of difference, not to mention we can't afford a mid season change anyway. Also any coaches who may be available are available for a reason.

Not proud to say I didn't go today, but since the hike to 20 quid I'm picking and choosing and that last performance against fev made today an easy decision. But looks like the usual shot in the foot giving 18 points start and playing catch up yet again.

Don't know where this is going. Relegation would obviously be a disaster, I don't know how big (or should I say small) the crowds are down there but we'll be looking at 500 to 600 I guess at the Shay which won't cover the rent. Who on here will continue to watch Fax n League 1?

First half same as before with the opposition running harder and tackling harder.
Get back into the game and go in front only to give a daft penalty away, they level and then go in front straight away after we gift them field position by kicking out on the full following the penalty conversion.
We look like a team second from bottom for much of every game and who knows where we go from here, if it’s going down I’ll still be going unless we go bust.

Need the commitment and hard work from the start of each game from now on not just it the second half. Might just have snuck a result if Jouffret had made the line. 100 per cent better than last week. U T F

Always look forward to batley away but after today will skip this one. Finn needs to hand in a resignation and walk away for the clubs sake.

Don't blame Finn for all our woes but why keep an obviously injured and totally ineffective Corey Johnson on until almost the end of the game. I have not always been Inmans biggest fan but he immediately speeded everything up and brought some real fire to our attack and defence. Also unfortunately the lack of confidence has filtered through to our 3 key players - JWH was good in defence but in attack he's a shadow of his usual self. Most will expect us to lose again next week, can only hope that the desperation they must be feeling now means they have the courage to really go for it from the start rather than waiting until they've nothing to lose.

As previously mentioned, can only watch, listen and read from several ‘000 miles away, therefore have to try and take a balanced view, obviously something very wrong, cannot always blame the coach, although he has to take his share of the blame for poor results, is it naivety as a coach?, is he asking too much from players who cannot perform to his instructions, as for players I cannot see they won’t really step over the line every week to lose, firstly pride in themselves if not for the shirt and second who would sign them when cut at the end of the season? As mentioned cannot afford to let Finn go, and who is out there to replace him? Confidence must be low, but this is a time when every one of them needs to dig deep and find the desire to bring out that win, play easy game management, complete sets, and for the kickers every blind man and his dog knows it is going to the right centre/winger. If an amateur like myself knows that then the opposition sure as do! Come on guys you know you are better than what you are showing, do it for yourselves and the shirt if not for the coach.

Players.
Apart from any other motivation the players doing it ( or not doing it, giving it everything )for themselves when they step onto the pitch is what I can’t and never will be able to get my head round and it’s noticeable in every game we’ve played the difference is the opposition for long periods want it more than we do.

Coach.
As to knowing what we’re going to do and the shapes / pattern of play again it’s pretty obvious to those in the stand and even more so to Opposition coaching team what they are.

Their game plan is simple, dominate and get on top of our pack, keeping the amount of good ball we have to a minimum get near our line and sooner or later we’ll concede.

Our attack whilst it can be dangerous the lack of field position reduces the threat and ends up getting more and more desperate / clueless when we’re chasing the game.

Throw in the regular daft penalty and brain explosion and away you go.

Since we can’t replace the bulk of the team or the coach we are where we are and hoping they can turn it around with maybe another player or 2 who could make a difference but it’s purely hope based thinking.

Well, it could have been worse. Barrow and Whitehaven should have put us to bed so we could so easily have been way behind on 6 points but there's still hope.

Maybe now is the opportunity to make wholesale changes off the field as well as on it. It won't be long before the November 2023 accounts will be published on Companies House and I'm guessing the previous year's net liabilities of £351k will be even worse. We can't carry on like this. Let the Council sell the white elephant aka the Shay for lucrative building development and give Town and Fax a juicy share to develop their own much smaller stadium also creating other income streams. Preferably on existing sports grounds (eg Ovenden). Otherwise it will be same old same old turning up to an empty Shay season after season with a progressively weaker team with the same old fans whinging about the coach!

That late shot that effectively cost us the game was a complete joke,nothing in it at all.I do bemoan our discipline but its hard when refs like Vella seem to play different rules.TBF we got the rub on many of his eccentric calls.

York were flirting with relegation last season but won 10 out of their last 11 matches to even sneak into the play offs. We live in hope!

The ref certainly made some strange decisions but was as bad for both sides.

We made some basic errors that cost us position.
Finn says they talk about making a better start but its time they did.
Defend like the lads did for most of the second half and we would not be in the position we are.
I was always told that if you defend well the attack has the chance to win you games. We just don`t seem to put the required effort into the first 20 minutes.
It is going to be hard to turn it around now we are in the bottom two.

On a dfferent tack should Ed have been awarded a penalty try for that high shot?


.

Like as already been said Widnes came out of the blocks with far more intent than us and exposed our right edge for all of their scores. We came back by exposing their right edge in the first half but seemed to go away from this in the second half. The Graham break when his pass just couldn't be taken in by Woody didn't help. All in all when you keep giving sides big starts you will lose far more then you win and now we find ourselves in the bottom 2. We are in a real mess and i do not have confidence in the players to get us out of this mess or Finn as coach but we are stuck with them so it is down to them to gets us out of it.