I thought he had one of his best games for us on Thursday in spite of the result and the overall performance. He gave us most of our limited go forward.

Is there a hooker in the league who does more minutes on the field over the entire season than him? Most teams seem to start with someone in the squad who can rotate in to that position but we seem to expect him to play most of the game. If he gets an injury that puts him out for any period of time we are really going to feel the loss.

Asked to do an insane amount of work and attack suffers because of it.

Absolutely idiotic to have only one hooker at the club for half a season.

Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but he's made over 1000 tackles in 23 games and is about 300 ahead of everyone else.

I thought his ptbs and distribution slow against Wigan but very good against KR though some of that may be down to the intensity of the opposing defense

I do think hes overrated by a few

yeh hes a great tackler and has a great engine to play 80 minutes but his attacking is one of the worst in SL along with been one of the slowest hookers and his passing could be alot better

i just think hes gone backwards from 3 or 4 years ago

No other hookers do the minutes but loads with better distribution.

That injection in his shoulder is hampering his passing. About 5 times I counted his passes going above the head or astray. This loses us valuable seconds when setting up the attack. Watch him - he never passes immediately, always a pause and a step forward.

Great player but I believe his distribution is why he's never really troubled the international selectors much.

Oddly enough I thought it was one of his worse performances, following on from one of his best against KR the week before.

IMO on Thursday he showed the effects of playing 80 minutes in every single game and having a shoulder injury that requires injections for him to play. We really do need another hooker.

We've binned 2 already this season

When interviewed before the Wigan game AP disclosed that 2 outside backs have been signed and he is looking for another backrower. I think another Hooker should be a priority signing, Houghton rarely gets injured but we can't always rely on that. Maybe the backrower is Washbrook who has been signed as cover at hooker. He could also do a job at stand off....

I could do a job at hooker and stand off but it wouldn;t be a very good one. Ridiculous if we go into next season with washbrook as our interchange hooker but I can see it happening

yeah i think its imperative that we go into next season with a decent back up hooker and not just a utility man thrust into the position. Having got rid of all our back ups this season we need to sign decent cover. Houghton is simply being asked to do too much

But who? When McShane is rejecting us for Cas, you know you've got problems!

I really like the look if Jez Litten, but he has only just turned 17, should have kept Cunningham, but what do you do when Houghton if fit, he can't get a game.

Think that's the big issue, if we sign a hooker, he won't play unless Houghton is injured.

We were never in for Mcshane, our back up hooker is already signed.

Well Washy seemed to think we were in for McShane!

Maybe he was hoping so he doesn't have to play there!!!

Mcshane said he didn't want to take a backward step at this stage of his career.

Do you blame him?

From Wakey?

They are in the little league now with the other small teams.

Not at all!

*ss*

2nd division team

Nice one dave,but we are only in the middle 8 for 7 matches,then were back.Good luck for old trafford.

Hopefully not, you are back were you belong. Once you lose on Saturday you will start to realise you are in for over hell of a battle.

Thats a bit harsh dave,you can cancel my best wishes for you at old trafford now.

You love the banter really.