Chester's team selection worked out quite well though and we finally came out on the right side of a tight game.

Not for the 1st time this season you have to say, how can you drop anyone after a team performance like that.

Just who is "the 1st name on the team sheet" these days? Bill Tupou maybe?

If we had another goal kicker that was fit, honestly I would drop Finn. Kicking game was poor yesterday, offers no threat ball in hand as defenders know he doesn't have the pace to break the line and defensively soft.

It was a radio job for me yesterday due to family issues. After racing ahead I thought we'd close up shop and defend them out of the second half - so that flurry of scores to make it a 2 point game wasn't good for the old ticker - but I guess when you're playing the best side in the league, you can't legislate for them pulling their socks up and affecting the outcome. Very happy to have my expectations exceeded though - we hadn't won any of those tight games yet, and now we have - so that's a real confidence builder after a streak of losses.

From what I could make out, Tupou and Hirst had a stormer; and Wilkin did his level best to take out as many of our players as possible? Also - did our last tackle options look more self-assured?

I'll watch it on Trinity TV later - less strain on the nerves when you know the outcome.

I've got to agree with this, someone mentioned earlier how Finn controlled the game better than Hampshire, but not on yesterday's effort. Poor kicking & general decision making all game.

Having said that a heroic effort from the boys with special mention to Bill Tupou!

No.

3 particularly poor efforts stood out. Grix's aimless kick dead and 2 x kicks into the hands of Reagan Grace.

Agree on the Grix one - ended up giving Saints 7 tackles. Should have been put into touch to eat up some more time.

Finny's last tackle kicks weren't great but he was out under immense pressure from the Saints defence each and every time - LMS must have got to him and hit him half a dozen times. Compare with our pressure on their kickers - there was none, they had plenty of time on every kick to pick a spot.

So, overall an area that still needs some work but we did get 2 points so I'm not going to moan too much!

Cracking game! I've got a sore throat from shouting, especially that last 10 minutes. Can't remember such a finish to a game. What a rollercoaster! So many great performances.

All Hewer's fault apparently - reffed Saints out of the game [url=http://forums.redvee.net/showthread.php?30340-Some-Things-Never-ChangeSee Saints Forum[/url

Nice to see someone else blaming the ref instead of us for a change. Does any team ever lose a match down to their own inadequacies???

Saints forum had me in stitches earlier. First poster called us "d nothing side"



Some sensible posters in there as well in praising our performance and not relying on blaming the ref.

[list[/list:umakes me laugh when they cower to their own individual forum and whinge like they do, they only see what they want to see,
Randal had hold of the shirt collar when he made the tackle and in theory shouldn't of been sent off, I was that close enough to see that but can understand why he did get binned as it looked reckless, had he missed that would of been a score to saints, had Wakefield not had a BJB taken out earlier in the game we would of scored in the first half and had the score at 28 points, no sin binning whats so ever and was as bad but not near the line

congratulations has go to Percival who managed to get up of the floor when he was shot by a fan with an elephant gun
we now have football diving coming into our game and it truly ing me off,
well done on Hewer on holding on to his nerve so close to the saints fans side with the verbal that the lineman's got I'm sure it was Percival dive they was chelping about,
edit done Makinson an injustice there it was Percival, maybe he' trying to get noticed for the next England game

To be fair, only a few one-eyed supporters trotting out that line - and plenty of others disagreeing with them; that's the way it usually goes with most post-match analyses, and it never serves well to intrude on someone's private grief.

Dont know about last tackle options looking more assured.
The main thing was that we completed more sets.
Some of our kicking on the last was awful, especially just before ht, when, instead of putting the ball in touch, we gave Saints chance to attack and for me, we need to put the ball along the ground more often, instead of a kick straight into the full back or wingers hands.
Having said that, we shouldnt be critical of a side that just scalped the top team in the comp.

I couldn't understand what Grix was trying to do with that kick just before half time, it was bizarre. It wasn't finding touch, giving BJB a chance to chase, or bothering the Saints defence. Wasn't it on the third or fourth tackle too? It saw Saints go up the other end and score on the hooter giving them a boost for the second half.

Finn hasn't controlled a second half all season. He didn't control it yesterday either. One kick found touch in the 77th minute. The rest were little chip kicks straight down either full back's throat. Finn's pluses come in organising the attack but we had very little ball for a lot of the 2nd half. I feel a bit sorry for Hampshire tbh, if you're going to give people shirts who have played well then why was he dropped after a good performance for a half with a broken finger whose form has been scratchy?

Finn has been an outstanding servant and he will still have games where he kicks well off the tee and passes well but is Hampshire going to offer any less when you consider his running game? His kicking against Leeds was also spot on.

Yet somehow when Finn plays we usually win, work it out.

That said I saw nothing wrong with Hampshire last week but fact is he doesn't yet have Finns composure even if you don't see it. However at Hampshires age Finn didn't have it either, it definitely comes with age and it's hard to quantify at times.

So no I don't feel sorry for Hampshire, his time will come as indeed did Finns - off all the positions on the park S/H's are made not born IMO.

Great win for you guys.

After being on the wrong end of some close results, good to see you get over the line against the competition leaders.

Well done!!!!!

Radio job for me again yesterday, sounded like a heoric effort and the lads definately deserved a win based on recent games.

Strange thing is though the mood on the forum. I wonder if a 50/50 call/bounce of the ball/individual peice of brilliance or error had changed the result we would still be as pleased with the performance?

Important we seperate performance from result, as the last few weeks have shown it's often virtually as coin toss who gets over the line.

had the result gone the other way it wouldn't of swayed my opinion one bit, I've only managed three games so far but have watched all the other games either sky or Trin TV and I'm well impressed to see how close we are now to the top sides, we should of beaten Wigan, Cas, Hull, Wire and Leeds but we didn't we was far the better in all those games in my opinion
how refreshing this seasons going to be, never had I felt like we could win the challenge cup as this year

Yes I would still be pleased with the performance as I was with the Cas and Leeds games. It was clear to see in this spate or losses that it is the bounce of the ball which was the difference between Trinity and the top teams we've just played. A loss would have been down to a few individuals errors bit overall it was a cracking team effort. There was a period in the first half where Saints couldn't handle Trinity and we cut through them for fun

If we'd have lost I would have rued that break in the 2nd half by Horo (who had a fabulous game), instead of passing to Ashurst on his right hand side he tried to go it alone and didn't make it. For me that was a key moment which could have defined the match. I'm not sure if he was greedy or Ashurst didn't shout but a try under the sticks was a virtual certainty had he of passed inside.

Haha, my favourite quote from that thread is "No one is saying they're not allowed to make mistakes, but it's odd they continually make mistakes against/in favour of certain teams."

Little do they remember all the years at Belle Vue when Wilkin has persistently got away with head high shots (only to be pulled up this year), their offside try by Turner a few years ago on a night Sky match and the debacle of the Tim Roby reffed match when Ganson intervened at half time.

I honestly thought Hewer was fair, even if the "big" team did lose. Hewer didn't make them make all those head high tackles, drop the ball or swear at Kendal.

At the time I thought Barba had committed to tracking Ashurst as he knew Horo was getting caught. Was hard to tell from the Northstand though so will have to take another look on Trinity TV.

As mentioned at the start of the thread I had a funny feeling we would beat the Saints - Shame I didn't back my word..

I find it a little harsh on Finn. Agree a couple of his kicks weren't great but its difficult kicking from inside our own half under pressure from the Saints defence. He's never had the most powerful kick and he soon realised that rather than just hoofing the ball it was a better idea to try a lower height kick and find the floor. The Grix kick on the other hand was a frustrating one, especially after they scored on the hooter.

From an attacking kick perspective, I do agree we need to fix up. Our high kicks are never contested and there were plenty of times yesterday in the second half when a simple grubber to the in goal to force a repeat set was ignored and we ran on the last. Granted its not a bad place to turn the ball over but that's a key attribute the top teams usually have.

One play that sticks out in my mind was the BJB catch over his head after I thought he'd initially over ran the kick - Fantastic take.

Thought our forwards stood up well yesterday, all having great games but one thing I noticed Saints do well is run onto the ball. Something so simple but is often not executed, Pauli Pauli is a beast of a man but often catches the ball at a standstill.

Hopefully move onto Salford for another win. Although they are below us in the table it will be a big test. Reading the LE they are carrying a few injuries from the Hudds game. Closeout Lui and it should be another win under our belts.

Roll on Friday!!

At 24-20 with a few minutes to go, we thought we'd read the script and were prepared for Saints to do the usual smash and grab and for it to finish 24-26. Had that have happened, I'd have been disappointed with the result but not the effort of the team. The likes of Ashurst, Lyne, Kirmond, Arona, England, Huby, Horo were absolutely exhausted at the end. They'd given everything to win that game.