Squad named:
1. Jamie Shaul
2. Bureta Faraimo
3. Carlos Tuimavave
4. Josh Griffin
5. Fetuli Talanoa
8. Scott Taylor
9. Danny Houghton
11. Dean Hadley
16. Jordan Abdull
17. Danny Washbrook
20. Brad Fash
21. Sika Manu
22. Jez Litten
26. Jordan Lane
28. Hakim Miloudi
29. Masi Matongo
30. Cameron Scott
35. Liam Harris
36. Lewis Bienek

Going to get absolutely battered in the forwards so I'm not expecting much. If they bust their guts, tackle anything that moves and keep the score under 40 I'll call it progess.

All I want from Friday night is effort

Cas are favourites !! How can that be ?

The owner and coach have relied on their man management quals and devised an amazing thought out plan

They’ve taken a low confidence group and given them the pep talk of all pep talks
Boy does our Coach ooze management skills !

He’s publically criticised the lot of them to the press and anyone who’ll listen
He’s made them watch the whole game
He’s flogged their already battered bodies in training all week
THe owner had publically fired half of them in the press

It’s cutting edge management and leadership that Harvard needs to a look at

FC by 20 - fill your boots at the bookies

Are you trying to make a point?

That's one of the most frustrating things for many fans. All they want is effort and a bit of passion. Generally we are able to accept even a bad defeat if we can see that the team has given everything in persuit of a win. That has been lacking at time this season and not just the two big defeats. Attitude is everything at this level. Taking your foot off the gas because you've just signed a long contract or dipped out of the only competition you had a realistic chance off winning is not acceptable. The big question is can they revitalise themselves at this stage of the season with little or no external motivational influences?

It'll be a big ask but I hope so, especially as we're on Sky again and are likely to be next Friday against Saints. Huddersfield, whilst a loss, was a positive performance and I'll be more than happy if we show the balls we did at the John Smiths on Friday night.

He has made a very valid point. That's part of FC's problem.

Even accepting the poor results the team have had recently the response from both Pearson and Radford demonstrates their poor man management.

If that is how they have been responding in private before their public outbursts no wonder things are going from bad to worse.

FC fans have commented on Pearson's habit of shooting from the hip in adversity. That is not generally accepted as a good man management tool. If he spoke in anger I think he made a mistake and if he spoke after careful consideration then that even worse.

I read it as "Pearson has shouted at the players so we definitely should be winning" which is complete nonesense. If that is not what is being said then fair enough.
Even if we were top of the league I wouldn't be expecting us to win with that squad. Given our current predicament a battling defeat with bags of effort and the right attitude is a reasonable expectation in my opinion. Anything else is deliberately setting them up to fail.

The club is Pearsons' the players are his employees if they're not performing as expected then he has every right to chastise them, as would only be fit and proper if you or I underperformed at work.
Afterall he is the 1 paying them.

I'm not expecting miracles on Friday or even to win just an iproved attitude and the will to compete will do me.
However too many false dawns of late and a different player giving their media spin week in week out for me to even contemplate victory.
I'm going out of a sense of duty as a passholder not for entertaining rugby or a win.

If I get a bollocking at work, it isn't plastered in the local newspaper.

Not seen Jack Downs since he was pulled off by Radford a couple of weeks ago
Looks like the end of the line for him

"plastered" as in quoted, mis-quoted, overheard, rumoured, made up, in the public interest, the bbc has learned, etc, etc.

Radford surely wont play Abdull again at 6 so i expect he will do what we have been saying now for weeks and play Miloudi at 6.
Move Abdull to 13 and let Manu play his normal position and give a bit of protection to Cam Scott who i expect to play right centre in place of that lump of lard Griffin.
Play Griffin of the bench in the second row and make him earn his wages for a change

You've just described the HDM's entire content!

Maybe so Karen but if I have been spoken to at work for making the same errors week in week out yet continued to do so again and again then I would expect a major bollocking or some form or warning/disciplinary or even sacking. The fact its in the paper shouldn't be the issue as AP hasn't named the players individually or single anyone out. If the players are upset then pity they didn't think of that before putting in such embarrassing efforts. Maybe it needed saying publicly as if they have been told internally yet not taken any notice to change their effort then what do they expect?
At the end of the day people in jobs within the public eye be it sports people, politicians etc will have stuff made public if they aren't doing a good job thats part and parcel of it. They take the plaudits when made public so they also have to be willing to take the criticism etc.

If Abdul plays in front of Miloudi there’s something drastically wrong.
Abdul has stated his intention at the worst possible time, putting himself in front of his team mates.
I’d be calling for it even if he hadn’t put a transfer request in.
I’m sure Miloudi can cover for Abdul. Just have to do the occasional booming bomb.

Why was (edit - d'oh) after the Hudds game such a bad time to submit his request?

I don’t think handing in transfer requests when the club is on a horror run is a great idea at all.
Fans want to see players getting their head down, getting on with it and working harder than ever.
Not bailing out.

..deleted

They’ve both adults

Better than half an orange anyway

Yeah, but it's his career and the preferences of the fans of a club you're looking to leave aren't going to be massively influential.

I suppose he could have waited until season's end, but that might narrow his options (and your club's tbf), as other clubs allocate their budgets.

If it hadn't come out in the press and Pearson hadn't had a minor tantrum about it, then the fans wouldn't have to worry their heads about it.

I agree Miloudi deserves another shot, but if it weren't for this it'd probably be ahead of Harris rather than Abdull.

I've not slept this week

Jesus Christ, what a fuss over nothing.

Maybe Pearson and Radford have attended the hudgel school of management