before someone blames the ref.

Not blaming the ref, a comment made elsewhere
was regarding the trip I felt should
have been penalised.

barry tried mixing it up today by dropping 3 top players in our ranks.He got it wrong.

I personally don't doubt it, but has he really done the wrong thing by making the players work for their positions?, I think I would rather that, than he hand them their first team players shirts and they play like they did against Featherstone week in week out, the questions are, Who is it down to?, Why are we playin like we are?- We need to play harder and stronger for the full 80 minutes, the time is coming when a major upset of some kind is needed to move Keighley Cougars forward! - Its coming!!!!!!!!

I guess what im trying to say Al is this.

And be honest,
6 Presley or Haythornthwaite.
1 Rayner or Moss.
13 Nico or Hughes.

Especially against Barrow?? Dont get me wrong here,Barry had to do something after the Featherstone debacle but im not convincded this was the best way of making a point,drop benjafield if anyone,he offers nothing.

Today we were beaten by a better side who have vastly more resources than us.

The ref, his 12 year old linesman, and the other one who was bigger than I am poor as they were wouldn't have made much difference.

Positives Brendan and Shickell both made good hard yardage and played with fire in their bellies, perhaps too much at times.
Jamie Shepherd looked decent, as did the guy on the wing making his 2nd debut who's name evades me, sorry.
Both our tries were class, especially Duffy's.

Negatives Our line was getting broken far too often. If Barrow hadn't got done for so many forward passes the score could have been an awful lot worse.
We don't back the ball carrier up enough meaning:
1) If we break the line the ball carrier can't draw the full back and put someone in for tries.
2) Forwards can't offload to anybody and create line breaks.
3) The backing up runners draw attention from a 2nd and 3rd person joining a tackle which makes it harder for defences to "turtle" the ball carrier speeding up the PTB. It also makes it easier for the ball carrier to break the tackle as there's less people in the initial collision.
To an extent the new look team didn't work. In the skill positions (6,7,9,13) we had 2 changes and Buster playing 80 minutes at hooker which is an immense effort. I thought it might work but maybe there we're too many changes today.

Huge game coming up, let's hope the lad's confidence isn't destroyed.

Ok, Presley, Raynor, 13 negotiable, Barry had to something, if he responds as he did he is in trouble but if he doesn't respond then he is well and truely in hot water - who would be a coach eh?, is the writing on the wall already??? as for Benjafield, he reminds me of a comment earlier today, he is like Marmite, if he could just hold the ball eh!

ye mate,the old marmite debate,!! Anyway whats done is done,we move on,for me Barry is coach end of and i repect the guy to the hilt,just think that no matter how bad or good we are,Presley has a place in the team,simply for his offence and there are players in this team i would drop if need be long before him.

James Hutchinson.

Hutchie looked good in his first stint at the Cougars a couple of years ago , a big strong and fast winger , who was just going to take a little bit of time to adjust to RL after his switch fron union.

One who for my money didnt maybe get the chances to develop in the first team that he should have had.

As far as I'm aware he left the club to pursue a career as an RAF Officer so not sure if he is just back at the club on leave

Cheers Rach, a few of us were going get the theme tune from The Dambusters going if he scored a try yesterday.

I hope he stays, we could do with a large back like him.

Did the ref loose us the game? No

Did the ref adversely influence the game from a Keighley perspective? Yes

We need to develop a much tougher mental attitude to ref's decisions than we currently display.

Was very disappointed with our inability to break them down, on several occasions we looked for an offload but no support arrived. Our passing at times was poor, either behind the man so he had to slow down or so far in front that he fumbled.

Hutch looked in good shape, isn't he a PT instructor in the RAF? That try saving tackle nearly cut the man in two!

To me this should not be a wasted season, we have to keep on working for 80 mins and never give in, even when we are getting bashed. It's that extra effort in the last 20 mins that will get us to the pace of the game at this level. There are no quick fixes without buying our way out of trouble; we have to learn to be much tougher mentally.

As for dropping players, well I suppose the coach has to do what he thinks is best. It was interesting to hear a players perspective after the match -he said the squad was so tight knit that they accept if they don't perform they will be replaced, without taking the huff.