It's a strange one. My recollection is that Kear has generally favoured a big pack of forwards - 4, sometimes even 5 props in the 17.

Yet we keep reverting back to playing with three props. I know Green and Crossley are injured, but we had Bustin and Wood to call on today.

Kears post match is brutal ... this should ringing in the dressing room ... 6 games to go and its still in our hands

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damn ... how to post a screenshot

In All the time i have been to Bulls home and away matches i have never had any confrontation with the opposing team, until today.
As i was walking up the terrace where i stand every home games past the Swinton supporters a supporter grabbed me and about 3ins form my face said "how far forward was that F£$^ing try, to which i replied "there has been forward passes all game mate don't let it get to you" and continued to walk up the steps.
Close to the top of the steps another supporter stepped in front of me blocking my path and said "you have been embarrassed to day" to which i replied "we weren't the team who were 22 points in front and ended up with a draw and pushed past him.

So to all the Swinton supporters at the match today you have made a lasting impression on me and NOT a good one.

Which players were on dual reg?
Their kid who went the length of the field near the end, Matty Ashton, was very impressive. I assumed he would have been a dual reg player but I don't think he is, only 20 years old and has already signed for next year with Swinton. Wouldn't have minded signing him but fair play for staying loyal to Swinton.

As someone else has said, York dropping a point today has meant that the draw isn't that much of a disaster. Out of the 5 teams above us I think York are still the ones we're most likely to be in with a chance of catching because their run in is so brutal. However everything is going to rest on next week's result - if we go and get a win then I think we'll do it, but if York beat us then it's most likely over with a 6th/7th place final standing.

You know what's going to be happen don't you? We'll hammer York next week - then blow it by losing to Rochdale!

sorry Nothus, i can only comment on commentary from afar, i was led to believe swinton had a few wiganers on their books from this. agreed on Ashton tho' seems the real deal on swintons behalf

just listened to the swinton coaches interview ... was talking about us being super leagues top dogs, world club champions. this team needs to focus on not what we were but where we are, we are still the bulls and as he said, everyone knows and fears us .. but we are the bulls thats climbing up from champ1/championship and thats what we are. start playing the rocky 2 music before every game we play

As always after a loss you see some knee jerk reactions on here and across social media.
Some of it justified and some if it a complete over reaction.
But alas hopefully some valid points regarding individuals

Magrin after a few decent performances, including an outstanding effort last week was shocking today.
Pickers was up and down as he has been all year. That attempted tackle for the last try was disgusting.
Ethan going off really didnt help things
Storton was decent off the bench
Webster outstanding again

Finally im not one to have a dig at the coach and im more than happy with Jk but can any one please please please explain why, when Crossley Green and Bustin are all injured why would you play Mikey Wood in reserves given that hes played the majority of games this year and been more than decent. Utter madness as far as im concerned

I think going with 3 props was what has being said madness. We had no grunt up front and I thought we were lucky to get away with a draw, but we kept going to the end and got a point.

While I did think going with 3 props was madness (can't believe Wood was left out) we were 16-0 down with virtually the same starting line up as last week.

I know Swinton are playing well 'of late' but BLIMEY how the hell do you beat Widnes 62-0, then struggle today.

you forgot Blimey



for accuracy

Nice one China Bull....Blimey !

Just as you begin to believe this side has really found some form and can push for a play off spot they turn in a result like today. Very fortunate to get a point and a long way off the standard for a top 5 hopeful. You just cannot afford to drop points at home to teams towards the bottom of the table.

After last weeks result I was beginning to wonder if the team were really focused on putting a run together and achieving a play off spot. Seems like they fell in love with themselves despite the warnings throughout the week from Kear.

York is a must win game now if we want to keep the dream alive. Lose that and I feel it’s a long way back,

Crazy leaving Wood out of the team. We need him on to defend when forwards like Magrin and Peltz are on cos they can run but they can’t tackle consistently - the opposition quite clearly targeted them. Also we missed Hallas on as starting hooker as his defence is good too. They just ran through the middle until he came on as prop good god! Thank god Kear saw sense and put him back where he belonged! Thank goodness for the one point!

Matty Ashton is second in the Championship try scoring charts with 18 and was signed from Mayfield
Hes not on dual reg
Mike Butt didn't play today is 3rd and was signed from Broughton park Ru. Not on dual reg.
Just some facts to counter one of your excuses

Sounded like the ref had no business being on the pitch from the radio commentary

O i do love it when someone who wasnt even at the game still manages to criticise the referee when we dont win.

Careful, that's close to becoming a catchphrase.

It's a reasonable point about the ref. He seemed to want to be the star but was hideously inconsistent. First try the touchy signalled in touch and he ignored him then within 10 mins decided that may have been a bad idea and listens but only after having made the decision he then reverses. It's no wonder it ended in an all in. He had no control or consistency at all.

Which is all nice but he never missed a tackle, dropped a ball or generally slacked off and let Swinton run through the middle like we did.

How many times were we held up over the line? Something we've become great at, but not yesterday. Just Michael Worrincy attempts at half a-rsed tackles.

We picked Swinton's pocket. Had Keyes's kick gone over it would have been a broad daylight mugging.

Having listened to Kear's post match interview he's obviously seething and rightly so. We came out with a real half d attitude and deserved to be 16-0 down. I find this attitude hard to fathom. As Kear said do the players want to achieve anything or are they just happy being mid table championship level players? To work so hard in the past two games then not turn up until half an hour has gone isn't good enough.

Even once we got back in the lead we let them run through our middle to score. That was weak defence. I dont know who it was but they should be in the reserves following that effort.

I was a bit mystified to see Wood left out too. We lacked his toughness up the middle at times. A few other things in defence concerned me such as the weak defending opposite Kibula and the way we allowed Ryan to be targeted when he was clearly injured. In attack we were poor too with players not backing up enough. Then there was Oakes's inexplicable dummy at the end and Wildie taking several eons to pass the ball out wide when Swinton were down to 11 men.

All very poor and totally avoidable. Well done to Swinton though who played it tough yet showed a lot of flair too. Had they kept their discipline a little better they would've kept Farrell out at the end but being down to 11 was too much to overcome.

As for the ref he's a young and inexperienced lad who had a tough game to cover. He made some mistakes but they all do and he will learn. Having a go at him detracts from our own shortfalls.

Mr Kear also said he would look at the players in yesterdays game, and the players in contention from the reserves game and make changes for the upcoming game against York (which, I hope, will be some payback for our defeat last year).

Or will he? Hasn't he said this before, and then changed nothing? Is it just an empty threat for the players?

I just referred to this on another forum. He has made this threat at least twice in recent weeks and then done absolutely nothing - picking the same 17 the following week.

I'm afraid he will actually need to follow through if he doesn't want the players to get wise to those empty threats!