were we unlucky?

[Ratboy]

I do not think a lot realise that was a full strength Wakefield team.Be interesting if they had Mathers,Collis,Smith,Southern and say lauititi missing and we was full strength?So if we did not get Cross sin binned they would not have had the space.We need composure and pulling foxs shirt was silly.Better let pick up and keep pressure on the 10 meter area.

[Debo]

Lets not forget that this is only round 1!! There will be a lot more to come from us this year, especially once we've got a full squad to choose from... I'm not sure anyone can say that Wakefield will be the whipping boys for this year as they are in a similar position to us, as they've pretty much recruited a whole new team!!

We've recruited some very good players and have put together a solid base to build on with our 'spine' players, most of which were missing last night (Briscoe, Watts and Clarke for the majority). And we've still got Phelps and Kite to add to that. I think the main thing was that for those who went to watch the Saints game, where we gave a very good account for ourselves.. Last nights performance wasn't on par, but again, a lot of players missing.
For me, nobody had a particularly bad game... a few players obviously need to cut out the penalties as they killed us last night!!

The main concern for me is the fitness, as previously mentioned we seemed to be blowing 10 mins after half time and we lost the game in the final 15-20 mins. Again, similar to what happened at Saints, although I think that was down to injuries throughout the game aswel. I don't think the Cross sending off had too much impact on the game, I think it had gotten away from us at that point as we had ran out of steam.

The final thing I found quite interesting was the appointment of referee Ben Thaler, who is from Wakefield?? Yes, the referee doesn't miss tackles but he seemed to penalise Widnes but let Wakefield off with similar offences. Maybe we just didn't get the rub of the green on that front.

Still a lot, lot more to come yet. Unsure why some people are losing their heads over our first 80mins back in SL!!

[Pepe Le Pew]

Yes, we had some bad luck with the 50/50 decisions but I don’t think it cost us the game. We seemed to tire in the last 20 minutes and our discipline became atrocious. I think Betts needs to ask Clive Brewer a few questions. When you get tired you start holding down and niggling in the tackle to get a blow. You get frustrated too, and that leads to those high shots. It then snowballs, because you are not in possession and tackling constantly tires you out even more. 

This is a pity, because I thought we looked pretty good in the first half, and even in some spells in the 2nd too. I think they look to have a very good halfback pairing in John and Smith, and Prop Steve Southern was very impressive. Ali Lauitiiti looks to be an excellent buy for them too. I reckon they are a top 10 team, going by last night, and we are a bottom 2 side. That is all that can be, reasonably, expected of us. Anything better will be a bonus.

I thought that our kicking game was poor, and that worries me more than anything does at the moment. Wakefield’s wasn’t much better though. There was no lack of effort, in the tackle, from any of our players. The flacks, particularly our left flank (Isa/Ah Van) look all over the place at times. They failed to read what was happening and found themselves out of position. I don’t want to criticise them too much because I saw them both make some great tackles last night. It’s just an organizational thing.

Bad luck has certainly played it’s part with our injuries but, as Spelly says, that is part and parcel of the game. This is why you have to assemble a squad and not just a team. It seems we may have fell short in that aspect. They weren’t out-classed by Wakey, as some have suggested, but they could be by the likes of Wigan, Saints and Leeds etc… There was some good skills shown and we threw the ball about well. There was just a lack of ideas in front of the opposition line that ment we couldn’t turn pressure into points.

I thought our pack was a little out-muscled towards the end, and we lacked a bit of umpty. This could be improved by the inclusion of Kite and Davies, so it may not be an issue in the long run. I genuinely think we’ll have a big scary pack, when fully assembled. I just hope that we get better luck with injuries in future and can field our best side most weeks, or it could be the wooden spoon for us.

Things that need to improve:
•   Fitness
•   Defensive organization (particularly on the flanks
•   Kicking game
•   Go forward

[GSF]

A big positive for me was our ball security.I can barely recall one dropped ball.I saw brief glimpses of a half decent SL side in Widnes last night.The biggest negative was our flat attack and lack of ideas in their twenty.Early days obviously but it was disappointing that Agar had his cobbled together team of strangers playing with fluency whilst our boss had his team playing as if they only met for the first time yesterday afternoon.

[Loz]

We were poor I'm afraid total lack of effort IMO, no ideas and defense was poor. The problem I have we didn't really look competetive considering we have a similar number of new recruits. They looked  better organised and more up for it.!!!!

Not competative....we led the game through to the 61st minute....you must have been too cold to realise....

[BarryJohn]

I am not too overly concerned. We looked a bit too tired for my liking as we approached the latter stages, and that will have to come with time perhaps. We looked run off our feet towards the end. But I don't think we dropped the ball too often! Indiscipline is clearly an issue, and as the penalties we did concede were soft. Clarkey not being there was potentially the turning point, no leader.

But we have to be patient, we are in for some long hard afternoons/evenings this year! And we are going to rack up a few 50-60 point losses at some places, but it is a learning curve from which we have to learn and improve on. We are going to lose next weekend, and potentially quite heavily. But we need some perspective, I mean the amount of people that got up and left after 65-70 minutes did my head in! Did they think we'd walk it?

[BEANO]

Have to agree - 28-4 in any one half is a hammering, even harder to take on one's own sod.

Against the team that is supposed to finish next to bottom.

I can accept a second half hammering at Wigan - but at home to Wakefield is not unlucky - it's unacceptable.

[rayvon]

Against the team that is supposed to finish next to bottom.

I can accept a second half hammering at Wigan - but at home to Wakefield is not unlucky - it's unacceptable.

Think Salford look worse than either us or Wakey personally

[greggs69]

I don't think wakey are that bad a team, they showed some good movement and ideas with the ball in hand and a good defensive line too. Maybe we were unlucky to a point but at times we lacked any creativity. We definitely showed some glimpses of what could be, but there is definitely lots of work to be done over the next week.  With players coming back they will show what they are capable of, other players will pick up on in game decisions from the likes of watts and briscoe and adapt them for their own game and we may have the makings of a good squad.  Craven I thought had a good game as did some others, but as a team they need to gel more and I think only game time will give them that.

Definitely expect more nights like yesterday but let's enjoy the games where they stand up and are a force to be reckoned with as there will most definitely be some of those.