Getting things into perspective

[Wirralviking]

It was a disappointing night but having reflected on it I realise that I had allowed myself to be carried along by the occasion. My thoughts after realising that Watts, Briscoe, Flynn and Davies would not be playing were that we did not have the cover (particularly with not having Kite or Phelps available) to be confident of victory.

I was so excited by the whole event of us being back in Superleague, the prospect of a good crowd (which turned out to be excellent not just good!) that I thought the whole thing would be enough to make up for our shortcomings. So I chose to ignore the fact that we would have positional weaknesses and an over reliance on players with mainly Championship experience.

As it turned out we did OK for 75% of the match, always hanging on by the skin of our teeth, but we were either leading or very much in contention. As it turned out our make do team, that had struggled for creativity, became even more make do as we lost further players to injury and yet we had a tactic that could have paid off with a bit more good fortune and possession of kicking through to Ah Van's wing, which seemed to have them in all sorts of trouble.

As it turned out Wakefield had creativity to burn, which they exploited well and losing a player (which to be fair we could have lost someone to the sin bin much earlier if the number of high shots were as real as the ref seemed to pick up) meant we were really struggling to contain them.

I couldn't fault any of our lads for effort, they were bound to have been anxious about their first competitive match and they would be only too aware of the impact of the loss of key players.

Ill discipline was disappointing and is something DB will really need to get sorted or we are just going to kill ourselves every game.

So not a total disaster, with most players able to hold their heads up in terms of effort and commitment, but we now know it takes more than that to win a Superleague match.

Lets hope we can get our best 17 on the park against Salford and then we can maybe make a clearer judgement.

[JonM]

I couldn't fault any of our lads for effort

Isn't it nice to be able to say that?

Long time since I've seen a Widnes team play with that much commitment & emotion.

[Wirralviking]

Absolutely right effort there in abundance, whereas nous was in short supply when it mattered near their line and as has been said in other threads the range of backline absentees just stretched us too thinly in terms of having players to cover. Craven, who looks like he has been playing at this level for years, is an excellent cover player for stand off or fullback, but to have both those slots vacant means (in the absence of Phelps or even Flynn) one or other of those slots is going to be filled less well.

Cant say this with any certainty, because you never know what would have happened, but it does look as though we paid a heavy price for that excellent performance against St Helens, it seems to have robbed us of Watts for certain and probably of Flynn and Briscoe (unless they suffered from injuries in training).

Even our leadership was affected, having got Clarke as captain and Briscoe as vice-captain it always seemed likely that we would have a captain on the field throughout a game. Losing Briscoe before the game to injury scotched that option and then losing Clarke at half-time left us floundering a bit, no doubt someone was asked to hold the fort, but it wasn't too apparent who that was.

Still going to be a tough old season, but if they can improve each game then the wins will come (maybe not too many this season!)

[SHELLVIKING]

Agree with all you are saying

[gig]

Yes, its going to be a difficult year, but we will do better than that when we get everyone in and fit.

I thought the rub of the green went against us, which may have led to some of the ill discipline (although there cant be any real excuse for that). 2 video ref decisions could have gone the other way - Wintersteins touchdown, well I have seen them given on the basis of a fingertip touching, and the try by Raleigh was definitely a knock on before he got over the line. We also had a very marginal forward pass given against us which I'm sure would have led to a try for Dean or Marsh, and from that decision Wakefield scored.

I know its all ifs and buts, but if those decisions would have gone the other way, i suspect the result would as well.

So, some things to build on and some things to sort out, but the big thing is that the supporters tough it out, because its the only way we will build.

We're in Super League where we belong, so lets enjoy it.