Leigh managed at least four pages on George last week so I thought I would start ours off.
Can anyone honestly say that Mr Stokes was in any way responsible for our inept performance or even that there weren't a number of players on our side who performed far worse.
I await with relish,

Given another referee we might have won, but we will never know. I guess I would say that he wasn't the main reason we lost, Batley outplayed us and we struggled to break their defence, and he few times we did we either bombed it or "forward pass". Strange that Stokes and his team only saw forwarded passes from Halifax. I still don't know why he chalked off our first try, all around me were baffled too. Hope we don't see Stokes too many times this season.

There were a few bizarre decisions (Reitties throw on Moore, Salty being taken over the horizontal) but by and large we lost today due to Batleys' commitment in defence and strength when carrying the ball mixed with our lack of cutting edge when it came to the final pass/option. We created more than enough chances to win that game and had we chosen the right option on each occasion would've won that game comfortably. All credit to Batley

I cant wait to see Moore's no try back and i thought it were a bad decision not to give us a penalty on the Rettie incident but overall I just thought it was a typical Stokes reffing performance where not many people in the crowd, and more importantly both sets of players, had very little idea what was going on.

One of his better games today but still hate the guy as he always seems to make a bad call against us and that chalked off try today is one that I really must be see again why did he disallow it???
Plus I don't know but were those passes really forward?
He should stick to Super Dooper League the best place for him imo.

Marshall said he was not happy with that no try after the game saying he had seen the replay and could not understand any reason why it was not allowed. He said he had spoken to George about it but would not go further.

Forward passes are often the call of the TJ and sometimes its the angle you are, that makes a pass look forward, though you should look at the hands and not the direction of the ball. Maybe we have to look at our attack and if Stokes is Ref maybe make an extra effort to make sure the ball is going backwards. I do not think you can blame a match official for a loss as over 80 minutes you should do enough to win a game yourself. Anybody who has Reffed a game, know how hard it is and Match Officials, just like players, will make mistakes. I am not a fan of Stokes, but I dont like to blame him or any MO, for when we have lost. Well done Batley, as they came with a simple plan and once again it has worked, just the same as against Leigh and Sheffield. That takes some doing, to beat 3 of the top 4 from last year and is no way a fluke or anything.

Correct Stokes did not lose us the game we did by not doing a Batley on Batley we know what they are about and they stuck to what they do best and deservedly won.
But in a tight game with only 4 tries having what looked like a valid try being disallowed can make a big difference to the scoreline come on!

The only thing I can say is, The more reffing from stokes for you guys and the more the bookies have it right for Fax finishing 7th.

You need to look in the mirror mate drawing a game that you should have won, what was it again 5 tries in the last 15 minutes???

You are quite right ,we should have won.,However,[size=150WE DIDN'T LOSE[/size.

Go on then, I will. 6v0 up and we have a perfectly good try disallowed for who knows what reason. We could have gone in at half time 12v0 up instead of 6v8 down and you would probably have seen a totally different game and performance in the 2nd half. That said, we weren't anywhere near our best and Batley looked very well organised with a good defence. Another person who contributed largely to our defeat was Richard Marshall. He commented after the match that we were missing a little bit of spark. Well that little bit of spark is called Ben Johnston. What is going on with leaving him out? Answer on Wednesday please RM.

You did against Batley though, didn't you!

How did you go on [size=150AT HOME[/size against Batley?

Go away. This is why everyone hates Leigh.

You should have a sense of humour, and just join in the banter. Don't let it touch a nerve.



You can always win at London on Sunday and get back in the race for top 4.



Anyway, back on topic. how was Mr Stokes last Sunday?

This sums it up perfectly mr Cokey.

Thank you mr t hall. It would be real fun and games if he was to officiate Fax v Leigh a week on Sunday.





Please no - Please no.

Early on I thought he didn't have much to do as both sides were just completing setts and getting to a kick.
A couple of penalties followed mainly for offside and not standing square.
The main contentious issues concerning his decisions involved and hurt Fax more than Batley.
The disallowed try obviously got a negative response from the Fax section of the crowd mainly because none new why, I watched him as he chalked it off and he made a pushing motion with his arms a couple of times as if to indicate some form of obstruction in the build up.
Passes that put Ecclestone away for likely scores were ruled forward in both the first and second halves and that's about it really.
With 5 points in it you can see why anyone could rightly say it was a game we could have won.
We didn't and that's it.
One thing for sure RM knows we didn't offer enough on the day to beat Batley.
The last thing or person he will be looking at to put it right is Ged Stokes.

I agree.Don't want the opinion of a failed Whitehaven coach..

Heaven forbid..never want him to ref Fax again.I would find it hard to believe that he has a bigger dislike for any team other than Fax.

Sorry I meant George, where confusion reigns.

Well you was probably made aware that he dished out over 30 penalties with our game with London and he gave us two team warnings followed by two sin bins for technical offences that were so petty you could have given over a 100 of them during any game. To be quite honest, I think it's unfair for all fans to spend their hard earned to watch a game of rugby with that buffoon in charge.

Now the video is up what are peoples views on the obstruction? Personally I think its a bad read by the defender and Mitch is running in a gap without changing his line.

I agree.Also think the defender could have still involved himself in the tackle instead of standing moaning.At least now i can see why it was disallowed,even though i disagree with decision.Thought he'd just made it up on sunday.