So onwards and upwards, we can go over the murder till we are blue in the face, but the next 3 weeks are crucial IMO, if we take another pasting at HKR we will get beaten by Leigh simple as that, we will be on the slide and Leigh will smell blood and clean us up.

Need a full 80min performance HKR are now safe so we might sneak a win especially as their final game is aginst Sheffeild which woould see them safely home.

Have to play our strongest i feel and have to catch them napping and match their intensity especailly as they are missing the HB paring (not a lot i know as they seem to be playing very well without them).

Clare
Caro
Neilsen
Purtell
Williams
Gaskell
Mullaney
Clough
O'Brien
Sidlow
Ferguson
Pitts
Addy

Olbison
Lauaki
Crossley
Blythe

Addy put some good hits in on sunday and even though his playmacking needs work he might add abit extra for us, need speed in the centre so Mullany and Gas should give us that and out wingers didnt do to bad last week either so keep them, Clare need to have some desire especailly when chaing bouncing balls a couple he didnt go for resulting in tries last week need sorting.

Pretty much what i would go with. Strange one this, feeling dejected after the Widnes debacle, but a win on Saturday and we look like favourites for third spot. Hoping we catch them unmotivated and in holiday mode. Massive plus for us that they have no Kelly or Campese, but Craven park is a tough tough place to get a win. I expect us to be competitive for 60 minutes but fall away in the end, much like the game at our place

Looking forward to seeing the Bulls hope you bring a few. You never know we are 4 from 4 but not played well in any. I would like to see you back and this could be your best chance as Leigh may be stronger next year albeit in the championship.

Long as we can keep it close we will be ok i think would take a very close loss as we can show we are compettitive, but like last sunday forget about it, need to keep on top of them, saw much of the wakey game against Widnes (allowing them to much time, lack of kick pressure, slow defence) and it cost us in the end the 15mns after half time killed our drive i thought we would have go something especially after scoring at the half time hooter.

Leigh should have beaten them and FAX played very well against them also so they are beatable (with more compsure and less moaning Leigh would have won), need to have our best performance of the season if we can then i have hope....if little else be a long slog from mancehster but going to be there, dont go to see the score i go to watch them play as someone else has said on here and id kick myself if we won and i missed it.

I'm baffled how you can make a case for being competitive against KR. they are head and shoulders the best team in the qualifiers, and should rip us to bits. Whether they have a complacent day or an off day will reflect only on the scoreline. Even if Gaskell is fit I wouldn't play him, I would send the same team and tell them that never again do I want to see that defensive disarray and giving up, whatever else is happening on the field. If we can keep it to a respectable scoreline that may be significant. If we get a 50+ points margin put past us then after Widnes we are effectively another point down.

What we need to do is beat Leigh and Halifax. Leigh may be away, but we have shown that at our best we are more than a match for them, and if we have delusions of SL grandeur then we simply have to be the best team in our division, no excuses, no sob stories, if we don't beat Leigh then it is hard to argue that we deserve to go up. And if we don't beat Leigh it is hard to imagine how we could win a playoff against any of the SL sides anyway.

As for next year, if we fail in our promotion bid, then provided we can solve the halfbacks problem and provided we can keep the backbone of our squad together, we would be a far better team in our second season. Those are big "ifs", but Leigh have managed to do it, and so there must be a way. We have over-achieved in many ways, but our blowing hot and cold and lack of cohesion at times is just what you expect from a team and a squad that hasn't had years to gel and be honed into something like a unit. That won't have happened by Year 2 either, but we would be much further down that road.

Disagree, if we are thrashed by HKR then we will lose at Leigh even though we might have matched them during our games they will be more fired up than our guys and what will that do for the fans?

taking over 1000 to HKR to get battered wont do anyone any favours we must show we have something in our side, ive not seen it this year, our best tries are from long range we panic a in the oppos 10metre zone and we did last year also under FC, so nothing has really changed on that front (beating part time teams doesnt count), we have been out classed frightnigly against SL salford apart who where very lazy and though just going throught motions would get the result, if we had played them before Leigh i can imagine we would have lost and Leigh would have beaten them, Leigh went very close agains HKR and Wakey (a team who easily took us to the cleaners).

Need to show what we are made of, cut out the crap and keep it simple, and DONT PANIC.

Exactly. We have two bites at the cherry to secure at least a spot in the million pound game. Why waste one of them and just concentrate on Leigh? Some said the same thing after Wakefield, "we only need to beat Leigh to secure 5th etc." We then went and beat Salford. Hull KR are beatable. We've beaten better teams against even greater odds before. They are the best side in the eights, but they are inconsistent (Otherwise they would be in the top 8 right now)

We competed well in the previous fixture, where we had Chev Walker at centre and no Mullaney. Also Kelly and Campese were massive for them in that game.

We should go all out for the victory as we COULD win. As broady say,s, taking 1000 fans to Hull KR to witness another hammering could seriously demoralise the squad and fans for the Leigh game.

Rovers haven't been at their best but they do have purple patches which has served them well in the Mid8s.

I don't know which way this fixture will go, the Bulls display against Salford was awesome, bring that level of intensity and it will really make things interesting.

We already played KR this year. They weren't that interested and still put 50 on us in a game where they didn't bother to defend on a "we'll-score-more-than-you" basis. I entirely agree that we need to play at a full intensity level as we don't need a pasting. But am worried as to how we reacted to adversity and a ticking scoreboard against Widnes, as things unravelled so did we. At this stage of the season that's a big concern.

But our team is completely different to that game. the entire back line will be different and KR will be without their two best players who both played in that game.

I don''t expect us to win, but it would hardly be the shock of the season if we did.

I think we'll lose this one up front just like we did in the Widnes game. I'm fine with our starting pack, but our bench options are where the cap disparity really shines through in my opinion.

If Gaskell plays, I'd be tempted to move Addy into the pack and also bring in Matt Ryan. Those two can replace Mellor and Blythe on the bench. Mellor, despite having bags of enthusiasm, doesn't quite have the size yet and was dominated by the big Widnes forwards. Blythe is just not good enough imo.

I don't imagine for 1 minute that this will be the side. No idea if Gaskell will be fit or it he'll be saved for the Leigh game.

If he does play then I reckon it will be:

Mullaney
Clare
Neilsen
Purtell
Williams
Gaskell
Addy
Clough
O'Brien
Sidlow
Ferguson
Olbison
Pitts

Lauaki
Crossley
Blythe
Ryan

There's no way I'd rest any players for this one. If we rest players for Leigh, and then lose to Leigh anyway, then the Hull KR game would be a total waste of time. There are too few games in this mini-league to start prioritising some matches over others. Each game is just too important.

Hull KR I believe are the strongest team in the Middle 8 and their perfect 4 wins from 4 record proves that. Realistically, I'm struggling to see how we'll get the win, but I said the same thing before the Salford game. Our lads will have to be really up for this, and Hull KR will have to have an off day (like Salford did against us) for us to win.

I don't think anybody would rest players. It will come down to whether players are fit or not. If Gaskell isn't fully fit then he may well be given another week. I have no idea what the situation is, just like most of the fans. We'll just have to wait and see.

But we always rest one prop for most of our games - Lauaki - average game time declining - 15 minutes against Widnes including some sort of dance session at one point where hadn't a clue what to do! For the statisticians of the SL / Championship what is the average game time for a bench prop? ...and you're all correct his contribution didn't cause the loss but neither was it a contribution to the on field effort. Shouldn't single out players given the overall team performance but he has been consistently poor throughout the season imo.

At best I hope we give KR a game but all I really hope to see is our team not running up the white flag if and when we get a couple of scores behind - professional / fulltime players should be better than that.....

Playing Gaskell - why not - may give us those few chances to convert something - can't harm our defence as we don't do that without him anyway.

Yeah, if Gaskell is less than 100% then I wouldn't risk him in case he aggravates the injury. If he is 100% I'd play him, even though the Leigh game may be seen by some as 'more important'. I'd go:

Clare
Caro
Nielsen
Purtell
Williams
Gaskell
Mullaney
Clough
O'Brien
Sidlow
Pitts
Olbison
Addy

Lauaki
Crossley
Ryan
Ferguson

Ferguson and Ryan on the bench to give us some level of impact which we sorely lacked against Widnes. Ferguson to come on early and stay on for the duration. I'd have Ryan over Mellor, who was too lightweight against Widnes.

If Jimmy plays Gaskell and Mullaney together in the halves then I'll bare my Harris on the town hall steps.

Hasn't this already happened at the start of the season when Siejka was suspended?

Yep at our away win at Fev.

Arguably our most impressive league performance.

That was before super Danny made the scrum half spot his own.

As I said on another thread, Lowes has steadfastly set his face against resting players, and I think he's far too stubborn to change that now. He will play the first choice available team

Another thing to factor in is that he clearly considers Siejka to be part of his first choice team - he said as much just the other week. Even for the Salford game he was 'pencilled in' to play. Even though most of us assumed he was dropped, he would have played had he not got a niggle the day before.

So, if Siejka is now fit, expect him to be with Gaskell in the halves, with Mullaney at full back

I don't like that anymore that anyone else, but let's be honest, Lowes is to stubborn give two hoots what any of us can see from watching the games every week.

It is of course possible that, playing alongside a fit and in-form Gaskell, Siejka may suddenly explode, like a rocket waiting for a flame, and rise phoenix-like from the dross of earlier games, strutting the playoff stage like a leviathan, into imperious top-class scrum half action.

WOW - that is some dream FA had about Seijka last night.
Oddly enough though, I would play Seijka against KR if he is fit. Jimmy will live or die as the coach because of his decisions so if he genuinely believes Seijka has the ability to do the job he wants doing then yes, he should either pick him or release him.
I thought Seijka was getting some confidence just before his ankle injury and he has never recovered properly. Addey is not the answer at SH so for me he should be 13 and Pitts in the SR with Fergusson.
Mullaney to FB and Clare on the wing as I am still not sure about Caro as he seems to lack confidence when he has a chance to leg it. His defence needs improvement.

The problem for us is that we can play poorly again and get hammered but they are capable of all hitting form at once and beating KR who may also be without halves. We will know within 20 minutes which team we have taken for the match. We have two teams. One that can attack and defend and the other that can't do either if they are in that mood. That does come down to the coaching in my mind as I do think we have a decent 20 or so players.

hi just to point out hull krs last game is Salford at home and not Sheffield cheers

Its an odd one really - we (HKR) have been largely crap in the middle 8s, we have a couple of purple patches in games where no teams (so far) have been able to live with us, but we don't put a complete performance in. Our starting half backs are done for the season and this has had a big impact on our attack I feel. Against Wakey we had plenty of ball in good positions, but in the end, we scored two speculative, length of the pitch efforts, one dart from dummy half close to the line and one great finish in the corner from Dixon. We didn't create much and we didn't do much in the way of build pressure on the Wakefield line. Really, they probably should have beaten us.

I don't know much about Bradford and the players in your team, but I don't think you need to play expansive, super creative rugby to beat us. If you can keep the intensity up for 80 minutes and can manage to live with KR when we turn it up, you should do okay and could possibly win. We'll score tries (hopefully lots!) but we'll concede our share too and if you can manage to not drop off in the way Halifax and Leigh did, I actually fancy you to get something. Rovers don't need to win this game but Bradford do and maybe that will be a telling factor.

Having said all that, we've managed to go 4 from 4 in second gear pretty much, we are the best team in this middle 8 group and i would fully expect HKR to get the win as I am sure they want to go 7 from 7 and prove that they're too good for relegation.