Fax 34 - 24

Final score, made hard work of it but a win. Fair play to the Rams, played a good game in the conditions and probably would have got the win if they'd have been a bit more clinical early on.

4 points clear at the top...

You`re dross.

What on earth happened, go away for 5 minutes and we collapse?

All level ...come on Fax I`ve taken you to win .

Just can't keep hold of the blooming ball!

No sweat

Poor match officials, Poor halfbacks and poor game overall. The match officials ruined the game by allowing offside, niggling, holding down and lost control of the game. Too many poor mistakes by Fax in defence and attack with poor communication at times. Kicking game was very poor and Handforth was just a passenger again and didnt want to get involved at times. I thought again Barlow and Ambler showed their SL class as they made huge metres but sadly Dewsbury was allowed to play silly buggers all game. Dewsbury did very well and obviously they had a game plan to slow and niggle as much as possible. Hopefully Haley and Divorty are not too badly injured

Cracking game for a neutral, really enjoyed it. Virtually a carbon copy of our game at Dewsbury though where we kicked on in the last 10-15 minutes (although we ended up winning by a bigger scoreline) after being second best for much of the game. Jowitt screwed up his substitutions in that one and to me it was the same tonight as the Rams forwards were out on their feet for the last 10 minutes.

Matt the reason I thought it was a poor game was the defence from both teams was poor at times. I hate slow games and Dewsbury really slowed it down!! I thought the game was very scrappy and slow mate though it was tasty at times. I feel both teams could have done way better in various things like kicking , communicating and defence. I thought the standard of the match officials was very poor. How did Dewsbury not get the try after Worrincy went down? Tackle was not complete

How can you single out Handforth?

It was a classic forwards game of attrition in really wet conditions. Handforth showed his class in the second half by giving us great field position with good kicks, and then sent out two passes which we scored from.

The forwards kept us in the game, but at the key moment, Handforth came up with the plays for us that got us back level and then ahead.

Unfortunately, it seems that Handforth needs to score a hat trick every match to please some fans.

Dewsbury did affect our game and as Dave Woods said it was frustrating our guys and subsequently our game suffered big time. However, some refs will let teams get away with holding down so really we need to be looking for a 'Plan B' in those situations.

Quality to dig in and get the win. I didnt think we played as bad as some people have made out. It was a very tough night to play Rugby and a very tough place to go and i thought we showed great composure in the last 15 minutes.

I too thought Handforth had a decent game but the match saver was defo Worrincys chase back which was superb and kept us in the game. Sharrod isnt fit enough to keep up with the game hence the holding down and messing that he allows.

Handforth drifts in and out of games as he chooses. First half the kicks were crap! I dont think Handforth is as good as some people like to make out. He is average. Its Penky where the creative play often comes from. Handforth should have been controlling the game more IMHO and he didnt do that enough. The attack looked at times pretty obvious. We need Handforth, Thackray and Penkywicz to offer other options instead of hoping for quick PTBs.

Sick and tired of people blaming match officials. I was unfortunate enough to stand in front of a group who continually bellowed "off side" whenever we had the ball. They blamed the ref when we clearly ripped the ball from Dewsbury shouting "knock on" I wondered how they were going to blame him for us not kicking the ball into touch when Dewsbury scored or blaming him when the ball bounced back from the posts for them to score.
Stayed a little after the final whistle only to be told by a number of Dewsbury fans that the ref was on our side.
The match officials can't win.
Lets face it love the Fax as i do we were our own worst enemies at times, we played poorly, to blame one player as someone has "handforth" is plain daft. We are all in it together. Lets face it we were lucky. But hey, I can take the luck with pleasure.
As someone said, "We make hard work of it, but then we are Fax"
Keep the faith.

Spot on. Handforth is miles behind a branighan/holroyd who put players over for fun. Our attack solely relies on Penky really, just about every try involves him with either the initial break or final pass, thank god we have him because otherwise we'd be scrapping for 5th/6th spot

fair play to dewsbury - apart from the line defence, they certainly matched or bettered the fax forwards

bit of class near the line made the difference for fax - well played rob for the chase back

I don't think it's luck being fitter than your opponents. Dewsbury were goosed after 60 minutes. If Ashall had got rid of that ball instead of them scoring and letting them get a hard on i think it could have been an easier night.
Think we did get the major decisions from the ref but the way the play the ball was reffed was disgraceful and they should have been pinged much more than they did.
Also credit to Bowman playing out of position for 60 minutes. Going down to two subs after 20 minutes is tough for any team. As for Handforth, I think he did ok, set up two tries. Both halfbacks could do with taking the line on a bit more.

Absolute rubbish.
I am a great Penky fan, but you are saying without him we would have lost two more games than we have.
To say Handforth is miles behind Branighan/Holroyd is futile, it's like saying Worrency is miles behind John Bentley, it has no relevance.
We use the players we have and in my humble opinion, Handforth is very much part of the team.
Don't forget some people think Thackrey is a one trick pony.
Each to their own.

Hope the moderators aren't looking.

mmmm didn't Handforth pick out a lovely timed pass for Robinson to score..

We lacked the attitude in 1st half, end of.

Got it back for 2nd half and ground out a result against a physical side on tight pitch with the elements against us. That's what championship winning sides do.

Perfect prep for the Fev game roll on next Thursday

Excellent comment, I accept when I said "luck" it was perhaps the wrong word. As Gary Player said "the more I practice the luckier I get"

We 'toughed it out' tonight, Dewsbury threw everything at us and played well, give them credit.
We looked determined to win it after getting back into it at 24-24 give the lads credit for that, we faced a barrage in the first half and kept them to 2 tries and yer we got a bit of luck at times but what about the kick that came off the crossbar for their try? The Ref allowed anything to go, lots of holding down and hands being left in the tackle all night, it spoiled things.
Our kicking game was poor at times again and Thackeray was quiet, Handforth struggled at times but he made the difference in the end with better kicks to the corners and that pass to Robinson. Well done Rob for that chase down of their winger, a match saver that.
Its a win and teams that win after their opponents give their all but still lose are often champions!

They may have matched but I really dont think they bettered us.



Im too getting sick of some of the e posted on here. Awful night, ing it down, awful conditions, played most of the game with 15 men and kept ourselves in the game enough to be in with a shout and looked the fitter team at the end despite all that. Did we really play poorly? Not in my eyes. It was a rough tough exciting game against a team who make it tough on their own ground and we dug in and won. We arnt/wont be the only team to struggle there.

You cant win every game by 30 points, sometimes you have to tough it out and the best teams are the ones that are good enough to win games that others would lose. That was one of them last night.

The game last night is the sort that over the last few seasons we would probably have lost but we dug in and came through, mainly I would say down to fitness, especially playing the 2nd half with 15 players.
Well done lads, now a good break before Fev.