A lot to work on. We look physically weak IMO

We look OK in stages but then we make a howler like knocking-on on the 1st tackle or simple missed 1-1 tackles. It's like a player does a good drive, then think thats his work done and then misses a tackle resulting in a try.

Disappointed with Pickersgill. Gone back to his old bad ways of being a revolving gate at FB.

Hope the fans don't pile on. Still think we will make the play-offs as others around us don't look great either and we've player probably the best team in the league.

No excuses for Sheffield though.

unfit after so long out I can accept but disinterested is alarming

Looking at the shape of a few of our players they're miles off where they need to be. If Fev can turn up looking fit what's our excuse?

Hmmm.. well that kinda went as expected

The worrying thing wasn't the margin of defeat, which I expected, but how much off the pace we looked for the majority of the game

Who on earth is responsible for conditioning these days? We looked sluggish and soft in the physical contest - some appalling one on one defence virtually handing Featherstone tries on a plate. Apparently Ant Walker has been training with the squad for most of lockdown, yet he looked like someone you'd see on a Saturday afternoon in the Pennine League.

Kear obviously doesn't think Race or Jowett are ready, which means that we are looking to go through the season with two half backs, one of whom is 38 and, with the best will in the world, probably won't be playing every game. We desperately need to sign someone to bolster the halves.

I don't think we'll be in any danger, although we certainly don't want to get dragged into a dogfight at the bottom. But I see little optimism to think we'll be top 5. On the plus side, I think 3rd down to 9th is going to be pretty fluid, so if we can get our act together then who knows where we might end up

Big improvement needed though

if that is the player with the number 23 shirt he should be ashamed with him self, to turn out like that looks like the games gone back to the seventies

I think it's someone from Halifax Town football. We didn't look to have any strength at all

Snowie, that guy - Anthony Walker - actually played for your lot from 2014-2017. I assume he was a fair bit better conditioned than he is right now!

Today was the real measuring stick. Our first choice 17, barring 1 or 2 injuries, against a promotion chasing team. The result and performance shows us how far off the pace we really are. Featherstone looked well organised and disciplined and their fitness was far superior. We looked soft, slow and sluggish and some players look like they're carrying extra weight that they didn't have last year. We are just not good enough, simple as that.

Just imagine if we'd have won that Super League promotion place. It would have been a bloodbath this season.

One thing I will say is Fev beat Batley last week in a friendly. Batley went and comfortably beat Fax this week. We've had the marker laid down to us, never it's whether we can reach that level of performance Fev showed.

I wouldn’t say it was a real measuring stick at all. A good test and in my opinion the result was expected, in fact I expected around 50-12. So the result was slightly better than I pictured (not that the score matters in a knockout comp), I think everyone knows (well anyone with half a brain about RL will) that Fev are the strongest side in the league. Based on the existing lads and the SL/NRL quality they have acquired since.

We had Dawson-Jones, Lilley, A.England and Murphy missing. You miss 2 starters it is a blow, you miss 4 starters then it’s a bloody hard task.

I’m not defending the performance but up at one point we were 24-16 down around 3/4 of the way through. Fev had two really good purple patches and capitalised massively. I’m not defending our performance. I expected more defensively and basic errors were made. Pickersgill was poor tackling, however in his defence it’s hard one on one as a FB with an attacker in full flow. We know he’s solid (not the best FB) and he’ll improve.

The real test is the first 6 games. Sheffield, Halifax, Dewsbury, Whitehaven, Swinton and Newcastle. Whitehaven is away and is a hard game and obviously the derby with Halifax. See where we are after those.

Disappointing performance but not the end of the world. Get those four back plus Hallas. Week off next week to recover and get an extra weeks hard work in. And of course after a year out this break will be well received after 3 games in quick succession.

Roll on Sheffield.

From the comments on here and social media it sounds like this was a rude awakening for a few supporters. Time to face reality, and the reality is that we're no longer one of the dominating sides in this division. Featherstone barely got out of third gear and put 40 on us, but then one look at the squads on paper and the result doesn't surprise me at all.
Having said that, we were missing 4 players who would probably be in the 17 and we also lost Hallas in the first 15 minutes, so played 65 minutes with only 16 players. Sort out fitness out and we will probably finish somewhere between 5th and 9th.

Sorting out the fitness is a priority. I've not seen us look this out of shape since the late 80s.

Brown should be nowhere near this team he offers nothing. Would prefer to see Foggin-Johnson on wing.

From everyone who played today, you pick out Brown for criticism?!

One of the biggest problems I feel we have is that our wingers have no metre making qualities. Other than Dawson-Jones the wingers never get anywhere after fielding a kick or taking a drive. Which means our sets always start behind where they should.

DFJ wouldn’t offer much in that respect other than he has a bit of pace. But weight wise he loses metres after contact. Oakes is the only back we have that actually makes metres in yardage sets.

I honestly understand signing Brown as a back up but that’s all he is. He shouldn’t be starting. But you can’t blame the lad for that. He’s still fresh out of the academy really.

A few of the backs would benefit from a bit more size and power. Again it comes down to conditioning and application.

Positives from today - Doyle looked decent. That's about it.

Though Hamlett and Evans went well.

The rest all probably had moments where they did well, then something atrocious. I.E Fleming and Scurr made some good runs and big hits but then silly 1st tackle knock-ons or simple 1-1 misses.

Thank god Ben Evans is on his way. Middle forwards were pathetic

Thats right Northus, I mentioned Brown because I think he was our worst player today. As you say there were others out there that were not good but in my opinion he is not good enough. If that's ok.

Is the definitely Kear confirmed nothing?

To be fair I was really really impressed with Sanderson today

I personally thought other aspects of game made him impressive. His composure under the kick. He cut back in when he needed to and generally read the game well. But again, going forward he had maybe 2 runs all game where he made over 5m after contact.

That should be happening at least once a set for our wingers and which inevitably put you on the front foot. I’m being very picky in regards to Sanderson as I thought he went well today. But little this like meterage in yardage sets are pivotal these days especially considering how much quicker the game is.

Maybe I’m thinking of the only good run he did! Hamlett looks a bright spark but I was horrified by Brown so I could well be wrong

Hamlett took his tries well but again in yardage sets he hardly got going. I was a lot more impressed with him in the centres when he played there against Swinton! Class in that game. If we could afford to be ruthless I’d have Hamlett and Oakes as my centres.

I think Sanderson could be our most potent attacking back if given some decent running chances.