Interesting scoreline. Not one I expected!

Look, I know it was a friendly and I know that we can't read anything into the result. (or can we) but, I still feel short changed. Two friendlies now where we have left feeling let down. We go, we pay our money and we should expect a better return for our money.
I'm sure it will come right, in Karl I trust but, I don't feel as confident as I did before a ball was kicked.
See you all next sunday tho'

p.s never again moan about the bar prices at the Shay, Inside the ground £3.50 for a Magnums. What's wrong with that you say, it was a 330ml bottle. Special offer a pie and a pint £5. Ran out of draught so it was a pie and a 250ml carlsburg. Still a £5er

Not exactly going to get

on those prices.

No but, I bet you had a little chuckle.

oh aye John. I permitted myself a wry smile. I don''t go in for hysterical laughter til much later in the season!!

I have to admit that I don't like this no names on shirts.
With so many new signings it's often that we say who his he?
In fact the only player we could name was Worrancy,
Due to the fact that he wears orange boots.
No disrespect intended but how did his brother get man of the match. It was Beswick by a mile. (Matt Callands country mile)
p.s We knew he was Rob's brother because he too wore orange boots.

I feel a ban coming on.

Sounds a bit sickly that mate. Ice cream is expensive though, especially in a 33cl bottle

Disagree about man of the match. Wouldn't have given it to M.Worrincy or Beswick although both did well. Rob Parker or Ste Maden should have been MOM for me. Probably Parker, he played straight through til the 60th minute and still looked fresh and was driving Fax back when we took him off!

Fax's best was probably number 13, not sure who that was?

I dont know if your players gave 100% or not but you will still be there at the end of the season. I believe Leigh have a very good squad even though they have had troubles (lets hope there behind them now) and the people that think this league will be a two horse race this year will be in for a shock.

Thing is as supporters we always want our team to win maybe it wasnt your day but come the end of the season i dont think you will of lost many games

bring back ross strudwick !!

Very very poor today, actually left early for the first time in years. The whole team bar Retite (Spelling) and Ashall were terrible today, especially the lack of activity from our half-backs. I'd consider giving Casey and Bowman a shot next week just to revive the competition a bit more...

Very impressed with Leigh though, carried on from last season with some solid and clean play today, think they'll do very well this season.

thing is jt, like richie said on the lead post of this thread, a quick start is needed. Any team can't afford to be losing too many in this league. Look at last year. We got tonked at Leigh 1st game and it wasn't until the final game that we finally overtook them (notwithstanding the maths of the points deduction),
Batley, Keighley, Leigh, Sheff etc will all fancy themselves against any team.
Any team only losing "a few" will find themselves scrambling amongst the minor places!!

That was Craig Ashall, Nozzy.

I think squad numbers had it's merits but we wouldn't see much of that in a friendly anyway (although I didn't have much trouble in identifying most of the players on each side).

Thought Sam Hopkins was the best player on the park by a mile.

Can't read too much in to friendlies anyroad but it's certainly encouraging from a Leigh point of view given how Harrison had spoken about how seriously 'Fax were taking this game.

Wondered why they stuck a Flake in my glass

Totally agree Matt.....He`ll be in SL in the next few years.... A big lad with an excellent workrate,defence,offloads and he puts in plenty of miutes for a young`un.

I should think so. You got your colours wrong - Michael's boots were green!! Right about MOM though - he shouldn't have got it. I thought Bibey had a good game, but Beswick is - and always has been - class.

Blooming eck that was a shock I never expected that.
We were totally outplayed in just about all departments especially up front not much go forward and not much in attack either, our kicking game was okay Handforth did his best but he does not vary it enough for me how about a couple of bombs every now and again?
We seemed to wait for them to come to us when we defended yet Leigh came up quickly at us and stopped us gaining any yardage.
WE NEED ANOTHER BIG PROP AND NOW!

Now its was a frienldy do what do we read into it?
A bit of a knock to my confidence as Leigh looked a good 60 or 70% better than us, plus when will Penky ever learn about taking his time to kick to touch when we get a penalty???
Should he kick it anyway?
Only plus was a good effort from Josh Barlow punched above his wait and Rettie did well, plus despite a few niggles our discipline was good considering we got a tonking!
Honeymoon already over for Karl, time to reassess who his first 17 are methinks?

I wouldn't worry too much tbh.

I think your backs are pretty good especially at wing and centres. You are lacking props.

Your team has pace but today Fax's handling was shocking.

I would like to know what have you done to Worrincy in the closed season. Thats not the same bloke. Where have his galloping runs gone. He looked like a man demoralised. Surely a few dropped balls has not got to him. There will be nothing wrong with the Fax team this year and as everyone says it really was just a pre season game where no one really wants to get injured. But you need the big wing man bouncing again and you really do need some grunt up front. All the best Fax. Oh and one more thing. Thanks for Bob, he's going to be a star this season.

Not a lot that Handforth could do when playing behind a dominated pack, I think it was just a case of getting the kicks away and any field position gained was a bit of a bonus, especially as you had quite a poor completion rate throughout (as did we at times, in fairness).

Think you're definitely short of a forward or two, I really don't see Aizue having the same impact this season given the reduction in interchanges, particularly as last season he seemed to be having shorter and shorter stints on the field.

Fax 'bombed' a few tries today. Not too many 'great tries' today, it's not like we were awesome, but still scored 44 points - a comfortable win for Leigh.....but it was only a friendly.

Thackray the one trick pony has no kicking game and is not very creative, as we noticed when played for Widnes. Too many dropped balls and no forward power to make hard yards.

Interestingly enough, Fax did get " Are you Widnes in disguise? " today

I'm endeavouring not to show any bias here, but from what I've seen in previous seasons and on his last few performances as a Batley player, I reckon Fax would have been better keeping hold of Black as opposed to signing Thackeray. Black seems to have retained a fair bit of his pace in what are now advancing years, and is pretty good as a creative force - something that Thackeray has never shown. In our friendlies against Keighley and Huddersfield its been interesting to see him getting extremely vocally involved in organising our attack - and to good effect - an area in which I feared we might lack something given Handforth's departure.

So, we're concluding the success/failure of players already and we've not kicked off yet.

Your assessment of Black needs to come at the end of the season (give a chance for his injuries to bed in) not after a couple of meaningless friendlies. There's some right tuppence 'appeny pundits on here.

wouldnt read too much into that effort yesterday. Karl will not stand for that, and they will get flogged in training this week. back to basics me thinks, catching and tackling!

they need to improve by 500% or else Hudds will be a cricket score. early days though.