Brand will never be a super league starting centre Inglis pearls of wisdom or not the lads got absolutely 0 qualities to his game that a centre should have, can’t beat a man can’t create space for his winger and we seen what his defence was like at Leeds ran all over. Cost his team mates tonight by not even looking at his winger a real shame.

Regular, competitive reserve or championship football will determine how many of those youngsters kick on but some of them look the real deal.

Doro in particular looks really useful and for me, should be ahead of Akuola, Latu and Kibula for a bench spot.

Great effort from our kids, really pleasing to see. Riley dean was brilliant as was Robson and the other lads.
This game really demonstrated for me why Patton should drop down a level, he looks great against a team that isn't fully at Super league level.
Doro i'm really liking, gives it everything in tackles and drives, very impressive.
Latu.....where do i begin......When we signed him i threw a hissy fit and kicked off as he was clearly a panic buy with a crap playing record. Then he played 2 games and i thought great he's played pretty well....but after the rose tited glasses came off...... he has a serious problem tackling people, is very slow, when he takes the ball in virtually every time he slows down, starts to run side ways and goes in to contact sideways whilst turning like he hates to be tackled. Hated that we signed him, decided to give him a chance and he's proved every single doubt i had about him right. Sod shopping him around just pay his last year off and send him on his way.
Kibula....too slow with little impact seems to just rely on his size and weight to do the work rather than stepping on the gas to add power to it..no thanks.
Luis Johnson played proberbly the best game i've seen him play for us...which is saying something. 3rd year with us and he's hardly progressed at all. He just seems too tall and light to be a prop.
All in all was a good display, and as Salford played all their main forwards, Mossop, Ikahihifo, Burke and Pauli Pauli and with Yates being banned i think we're looking at a tired Forward pack for Saturday

Spot on. I have seen enough of Brand to know that he isn't up to standard, sadly. The two lads dropping the ball over the line was just unlucky, but Brand not passing to his winger was unprofessional. Brilliant effort from the team in general but that incident leaves a sour taste.

Tough crowd for Brand. What is he, 3 games in to his SL career?

Definitely being too harsh on Brand. One can decide he isn't good enough to ever be our starting centre but opinions are coming out more than a little mean after today. There have been many a player who has done what he did and there'll be a great many more who do too. We had other opportunities, and scored two in the first half in fact that if they were not called back for forward passes, would have been out of sight anyway and nobody would mention Brands no pass.

I think the only thing that Brand is guilty of is trying too hard. He had a hard time in his appearances last year, I think he faced up to konrad Hurrell if I remember correctly so was probably trying to make up for that.
With regard to the rest of the team that was a very impressive performance. It was great to see their willingness to defend for each other and work in what was mainly a well drilled defensive system. In attack they also looked pretty sharp and unbelievable vision from Dean for the miss out pass.
Got to say that I was really impressed with Johnson, Patton but especially Walker and Davis. I guess that Walker and Davis will not make the Semi Final team so they showed last night that they weren't feeling sorry for themselves and put tonnes of effort in to lead the younger players.
I have been really impressed with the senior players over recent weeks when the team has had a number of younger, less experienced players in it because they look like they have really upped their game to lead the younger players.
Too many times over recent years when we have had to play a number of younger players and give a number of debuts we have taken a beating with a "well we were missing a few senior players" attitude but the whole club appears to have changed with a new mantal toughness, resilliance. I know it is early days and there has been many false dawns where we have heard that the future is bright but just maybe.
I just hope they can do a job on Saturday to give the opportunity to play a similar team before the final,

My marks out of 10 for the youngsters;

Longstaff (1icon_cool.gif, 8/10
He already looks SL standard to me and I thought his aggressive tackling work last night was outstanding. He is also a great try poacher at U19 level so we haven't seen all his game yet. He would be my choice as the one that is ready to fit into the team.

Doro (19) 7/10
Some really strong drives and decent tackling / defensive work. His second offload was a peach, straight out of Gareth Carvell's (or Charlie Winslade's) cook book. But he can look a bit awkward at times which I suspect is due to his lack of game time in RL. I assume he has a mentor in the first team, if not perhaps Mike Cooper ? I think he needs regular game time but not sure how much Price will give him.

Thewliss (1icon_cool.gif 7/10
Well, he looks a complete professional doesn't he ? If you could cross Matty Ashton with Josh Thewliss you would have the speed and the positioning of a real superstar. He bossed the space behind our defensive line and knows exactly when and where he is needed in attack. Trouble is, he is behind Ratchford and Ashton in the pecking order and I fear we might lose him.

Dean (19) 7/10
He had some great touches but seems a bit error prone and will not get the space he was allowed last night in most games. Bags of potential but I couldn't honestly say I would like to see him in the first team just yet simply because HB is such a key position. That's a bit harsh but you are very exposed at HB, you can't hide away anywhere. He also has a kicking game which we didn't see last night. His tackling is dodgy.

Roebuck(20) 6/10
He is a centre rather than winger so was playing out of position. Didn't see enough of him to judge I would say.

Wrench (19) 5/10
Also played out of position. Along with Longstaff and Gannon he makes up the formidable Wire back row in the U19's. He is a lot better player than we saw tonight.

I thought the best forward on the pitch was Lee Mossop, he was fantastic in the first half and caused our defence an awful lot of problems. Some nice touches from Patton,, but the kicking game was not great and with a lack of go forward we needed that for field position and to keep the big Salford lads away from our try line. But I don't think anyone will be unhappy with what we saw last night, if only we had a bit more go forward and didn't make those errors............

Interesting observations WO.
Overall similar to my feeling although I thought Thewliss was the best of the bunch.

Any reason Brand, Kibula, Shelford etc not commented on?

Especially when most have probably not seen him play outside of his limited appearances in the first team.

I always laugh at the idea that one moment cost us the game !! We had plenty of time prior to that to score and it's not a given that once he has scored Salford would not have too.

Shelford is a much better players than we saw, he simply wasn't fit enough to contribute, so I didn't really wan't to comment. I have said before that I don't think Kibula ( 21) is SL standard. He is not aggressive enough and only makes ground on his size /bulk alone. His size can also leave him flat footed in defence. Brand is a bit of an enigma. At times he looks a good player with a step and decent speed to break the line but then he makes poor decisions and or lets himself down in defence. Considering he is 21 and has had a year with Widnes already, I would have expected to have seen a bit more from him.

I guess I am not keen on criticising the younger players as they are still developing and learning. I think they need every bit of encouragement they can get as it's a massive jump to SL level.

For a team lacking game time & experience last night's performance should be beyond reproach. We were 4 forward passes away from victory, with 2 of our tries chalked off & a Salford try involving 2 forward passes allowed to stand. The Salford bigger & more experienced players did for us in the second half but what a great game the young lads gave us.

I don’t get why Patton didn’t organise a drop goal effort while we were still 6 ahead or even 12.
Other than that brain fart oversight, he played excellent.

I was surprised they didn't slot one in before half time tbh.

Doro for me looks far better and why would wigan let Kibula go if he had any real quality?

Hopefully there will be some tired salford legs out there Saturday, are we expecting an easy win? For me i think we will win but itll be close. They will throw everything at us.

We've lost our last four games against them. We badly underperformed in the three before last night and got outfought.

Price has got all the ammo he needs to guard against complacency. We should be fired up.

Kibula is very much like Karl Pryce, a big lad, loads of talent, quick for his size and good hands. However he lacks natural aggression. If Wane and Matty Peet can't get that from him then I doubt anyone can which is a shame as he does have the ability.

71 tackles is some going from walker, especially for his size, second highest in a game since 2003 when opta starts started, i wonder how many he missed.

Also, i wonder if thats an indicator that pricey told him to go all out, since he's not making the bench saturday? meaning that ashton takes the 4th bench spot.

Just one I believe.

Looking at the team numbers at least one of those who played last night will have to go again on Saturday. It could actually be Patton who can play as interchange dummy half and cover for half back.

Alternatively, looking at the weather for Saturday, he may want to go with another forward on the bench.

Agree about needing the extra forward given the wet weather forecast for Saturday.

Davis for me then,, as he can play hooker too.

They still have some learning to do, mainly for me Dean needs to learn to pass the ball and not be a glory hog, 2 certain tries missed out on because he refused to pass to someone else and instead wanted the glory for himself.

Getting back onside needs to be learnt as well, since they were nearly all offside all the time.

Other than those 2 things, they played really well considering most have not really had much game time if any.

Good signs of what is to come though.

I can't see us having both Ashton and Patton on the bench. Maybe Davis will back up?

Ratchford
Charnley
Gelling
King
Mamo
Austin
Widdop
Hill
Clark
Cooper
Currie
Hughes
Clark

BMM
Philbin
Davis
Ashton

I can't think of anyone else in the squad that didn't play last night. Davis put in 61 tackles in a typically hardworking performance, be a big ask for him to back up, but I guess he will be only needed for 20 mins tops assuming there are no injuries.

On the other hand neither O'Brien nor Patton have been effective when taking on the line, and it was low on Briers's priorities, too, in the later stages of his career. Nice to have a half with the confidence to do it.

I wondered why Dean didn't have a pop at one, and then got tackled on the last. That's not taking anything away from his very commendable performance.
As I posted earlier, there were opportunities for the win in that game. However, the boys did extremely well without getting any SL points to show for it.

Puts the criticism of his interference at the play the ball into perspective.