No problem with the result, for me the best team won. More disappointed with our performance, defence apart we were very poor.

A very good effort by FC with so many players out, as some have said the game was there to be won.

Having seen the posts responding to a "our season over " post, does your perspective on the rest of the season not show that the current system gives teams more to fight for especially as one team is looking likely to run away to take the league leaders shield again?

Any team can get injuries so Sts losing Barber or Wire losing Hill could have a major impact on the rest of the season.

Whatever plan they come up with for the SL it needs to keep as many teams playing until the season end as possible. I wouldnt want to be joint top of SL going to the last game knowing our competitors are playing a team with nothing to play for.

Great post.

IMO that would improve Wire, he has gone backwards at a rate of knots this season. Baffles me why he is a shoe in for England

I don't think Wigan's problems are behind them after that result, that 4th spot still up for grabs in my opinion , think wigan will lose more than they win, we just need some bodies back and put a good run together

Highlights now online, whether Flower is offside when the drop kick is attempted is debatable.

First try is difficult to see, probably ok.

I thought that at the time about consulting the touch judge , only reason I could think was he was asking him if they were onside from the kick through . Like to see the try again but I thought he grounded it over the line .

Aren't Wigan 6 points ahead of us with a game in hand? Hmm. I agree we have players coming back at the right time but the cohesion that Saints are showing, and in some ways that we did the last 2 years is that the same players have been on the pitch week in week out and are match fit. Like you, really hope we can put a strong run together with a steady flow of returning players.

If you play it frame by frame, both feet are about a foot (no pun intended) behind the ball

When Tomkins leaves go of the ball, Flowers is about a foot in front of him, so I guess it all depends on how the drop goal rule is defined.

A couple of ambiguous interpretations to ponder....

"Offside if.....
He is in front of the rugby league ball.
He is in front of a ball and it is then kicked."

"The rules say that to be onside at a kick, an active player not in possession of the ball, must be behind the player who kicks the ball."

We lost against one of the top teams - again
We didnt respect the ball - as usual
We wasnt clever enough at the right times - as usual

As ive said before were a dumb team that even with a full compliment is still dumb - Radford says the same after just about every loss but nothing changes

Were a 95% team, can do so much good but can be soo stupid and amateur at times that it outweighs the good - i believe thats the coaching and whilst Radford is coaching we will not change unless he gets help - he could do with a an experienced coach as his assistant, someone who could help squeeze out those extra %s that make you a champion team

Mrs B likes to wind up but that is season over barring a miracle, were to far behind the top four now and wont be able to catch up as were crap away then if we do scrape into fourth position we'll go straight out because of our crap away form

that dumb we won 2 cc on the bounce, imo this season has been badly hampered by injuries, if we can get on a run and get some players back we can still make the top4 gonna be hard but we can do it.

Under Radford we have become a hard team to beat with plenty of effort from the players but we have no consistency and thats our problem.
Even last season when we had very few injuries we were inconsistent.
Is it the players? is it the coaching? i dont know but as a supporter its frustrating watching time after time the errors we make,dumb penalties,and some players going missing during the game.
In my opinion we do need to have a plan B to our play as most teams have sussed us out.
Move the ball wide when coming out of our 10 instead of wasting four or five tackles making minimal metres up the middle.
Change the last tackle option at times of a kick to the corner by reversing the play in the opposite direction when the opposition are looking and moving over to defend a kick to the corner.
Work on getting the forwards running onto the ball instead of taking it standing still.
Can we make the top four NO

Looks like the top 4 will be 4 clear of us tonight and 8 clear of wakey in 6th. Pretty much done and dusted IMO. I'm sure the eternal optimists will still believe we will do it but it won't happen

Along with today's results I agree, unfortunately.
The 2 points were vital yesterday and we came up short.

Several are of this opinion Jake. Personally I'm enjoying parts of this season.We simply haven't had the numbers of key personnel on the pitch long enough to create a real challenge but have loved the following:
Emergence of Connor as a real SL gamebreaker, to the extent of international selection
Taylor back to his inspirational best, again getting international selection
Josh Griffin's barnstorming performances and metre-making - brilliant to watch
Huge amounts of game-time for the young players
Re-signing Carlos, Fetuli, Kelly, and all our key younger players
Attendances holding up pretty well - not sure on the stats but feels like we're doing OK
The cup game against Saints - proudest day of the season, incredible effort.

Obviously the downsides have been missing pretty much all our key players bar Shaul for several games, and the night at Fev was an absolute disaster, but as a "transistion" year, I'm feeling chipper assuming we can cement the 8 (1 more win?). Should get a decent pre season in as well assuming we don't pick up loads more injuries in the remaining games.

I don’t think you have to be an eternal optimist to think we have a chance of making up 3 points in 12 games when everyone pushing for the top 4 still have to play each other and in some cases more than once.

We were never gonna go the rest of the season unbeaten so if we can be within 2 points at the split then we’ve got a fair chance.

If we were at or near full strength and flying I'd tend to agree but were not and our away form has been below average all year so I don't think we'll do it's

As great as the C/C wins were its knock out rugby which we seem to be better at.
I want to see some consistency during the season.
We have been hampered by injuries but last season we had minimal injuries but were still inconsistent.
Something needs to change

Watched the highlights back and we were unlucky in some of their points.
I was in the South stand and there's not a chance Sarginson grounded their first try correctly. Should never have been given.
And when they kicked their second penalty there was a clear knock on from their number 8 after we dropped it, so should have just been scrum Wigan.

The first try was fine, there is a photo on Twitter proving it, in fact it was easily before the dead ball line, some people have made fools of themselves kicking off about it.

Quote ="Hasbag"Watched the highlights back and we were unlucky in some of their points. I was in the South stand and there's not a chance Sarginson grounded their first try correctly. Should never have been given. And when they kicked their second penalty there was a clear knock on from their number 8 after we dropped it, so should have just been scrum Wigan.'" "Not a chance" - spot on mate https://twitter.com/merrick_matthew/sta ... 0506499072

Quote ="Hasbag"Watched the highlights back and we were unlucky in some of their points. I was in the South stand and there's not a chance Sarginson grounded their first try correctly. Should never have been given. And when they kicked their second penalty there was a clear knock on from their number 8 after we dropped it, so should have just been scrum Wigan.'" "Not a chance" - spot on mate https://twitter.com/merrick_matthew/sta ... 0506499072

That's fine, I've no problems with ever been proved wrong. It was more the grounding that I didn't think he got, not the ball been dead.

Quote ="Hasbag"That's fine, I've no problems with ever been proved wrong. It was more the grounding that I didn't think he got, not the ball been dead.'" Think this is pretty clear, or least as clear as we are going to get. https://twitter.com/ExelbyFoods/status/ ... 5444790272

Quote ="Hasbag"That's fine, I've no problems with ever been proved wrong. It was more the grounding that I didn't think he got, not the ball been dead.'" Think this is pretty clear, or least as clear as we are going to get. https://twitter.com/ExelbyFoods/status/ ... 5444790272

…. it also shows that the ref can get a split second decision right (at least sometimes) without the need of a VR.

Sometimes is good enough for me.



It looks like the world cup games so far have proved what a mess their VAR is.

Get rid now before it's too late.

(Posted before I read the ExelbyFoods comments.)

JAKE Connor plays his way into the England squad as a number 6 playing amazing rugby
After his master class at 6 v Salford what’s does LR do ?
Move him to right centre ? What kind of decision is that ?? Come on - FFS
Dumb dumb
Kelly should have to wait as when you’re injured you have to wait , not force a totally in form player out of the position that earned them an England callup
Dumb and would Connor have missed the 4 on 2 ?