Personally I'm pleased but also interested to see how Olly Smart goes for Leeds, He played with my lad at Siddal, didn't go to an academy, played first team at 16 and has now gone to Leeds and is in Sunday's squad. Good Player, hope he makes the step up.

Interesting choices with what is very nearly a full strength squad, and some good established players likely to be disappointed. If Widdop is really fit you'd think he must play, albeit at the expense of one of our best players over last couple of seasons. Hope he doesn't shift JWH into the centre to accommodate him - if he plays in the halves think Jouffret would provide better balance as a runner, rather than Keyes, but don't think there's any chance he'll leave Keyes out, with Jouffret possibly on the bench. If that was the case I'd line up
JWH
Eden
Crooks
Tibbs
Saltonstall
Keyes
Widdop
Murray
O'brien
Calcott
Gee
O Davies
Fairbank

Inman
Lannon
Tangata
Jouffret

Seems a reasonable selection...Can't see Kav been overlooked at this stage.Anyone know where C.Davies may figure or is he just third choice hooker ?

If Calcott and Lannon had been missing i would of put Kavanagh at prop with Olly davies in the second row. So with them both hopefully fit i would go with.

Woody
Salty
Tibbs
Crooks
Eden
Widdop
Jouffret
Calcott
O brien
Lannon
Kavanagh
O davies
Gee

Tangata
Murray
Fairbank
Ingham

My thought process is this , we only have a 23 man squad with potential additions of hursey hord and the trialist hollidge . Sam Campbell and Douglas miss out . I don’t think widdop is ready yet fitness wise . Larroyer hasn’t learnt from last year’s discipline issues . Tibbs has been playing well . So I’m going

Woody
Salty
Crooks
Tibbs
Eden
Keyes
Jouffret
Calcott
Obrien
Murray
Kav
Gee
Fairbank

Inman
Olly davies
Tangata
Lannon.

I've only seen friendlies on YouTube but very surprised to see Olly Davies at 18th man and Connor Davies on the bench. Presumably Calcott and Salty are still injured.

Surprised me too and the performance was everything I expected rather than what I’d hoped for...

Hadnt realised oldham teamsheet was so strong ,accept that some better pack members were out today but needs an enforcer element to get us forward and retain possession

As above no real surprise. A lack of fire and fight in the team and had more of a friendly feel to it than a competitive game. Clear as day we need another centre and some muscle up front. We should get that with Calcott and Douglas but centre is going to be a huge problem for us again. End of the day we gifted them two tries and bombed 2 ourselves, Oldham not as good as some people are making out.

Frustrating game to watch , momentum swung with the intercept and the game was then largely played in our half after a combination of handling errors and a good kicking game by them . Our discipline wasn’t too bad but everything went against us , dropped ball at crucial times and a bizarre disallowed try . Inman tibbs woody Eden played well the rest were average.

Mistake after mistake after mistake! Compounded when one of our better players, Crooks, dropped the ball and instead of falling on the loose ball he stood there whilst the Oldham player picked it up and sped away for a six pointer. As ListenUp says, very frustrating and a game we should never have lost.

It was unforgivable from Crooks..Oldham have good players and were pretty well drilled at this early stage with so many newcomers..as for us,same e,different season,Finn needs to dismantle that pack during the course of what will inevitably be a long season.It should,of course,have happened 2 years ago...

We gifted the game to Oldham. Without the errors we made they rarely looked like scoring. The intercept just on half time really lifted them .
Crooks apart from one run was very poor. I never understood why we signed him and he certainly should not be playing at centre.
Too much one up for me without dummy runners while trying to come out of our 20.. The same at Keighley but I put that down to the conditions, perhaps its our game plan now.
I hope Calcott recovers soon. As previously mentioned the pack needs some upgrading too.

That was Sh1t but got to say the Oldham full back and winger were impressive.

Not sure what happened to Ellis he turned in to a right pudding

Said we should have signed that winger after Keighley last season.Agree re.Ellis but his kicking made a difference..

Fullback was elusive but couldn't pass. A full back has to operate as an additional half in the modern game.. Winger would make a good replacement for Salty . Not sure how old he is . Think saw something about him having played 200 games.

I thought we started ok winning the territory battle until the intercept which seemed to bring Oldham to life and we became frantic in our play. Craven and Ellis seemed to play with more composure than our halfs when in good attacking position without having to do anything too fancy. For me Keyes is trying too hard and just needs to chill a bit and start putting his own performance first. Crooks dropping the ball is fair enough these things happen but to not kill it and then they pick up and score that is unacceptable. I like others have questioned our pack for some time and it will not go away until it is addressed. Even if it takes time to do it that is fine as long as steps are being made in the right direction. Talking about centres i thought Jordan turner for them yesterday was a handful even our forwards was struggling to bring him down. If we are not going to bring anyone in on a permanent deal at centre then Leeds have some young lads who might be worth a look at on loan if possible. Some fans might not see being out of the 1895 cup as a big deal but i am disappointed, yes we didn't make any money out of winning it last year but going to watch your side play and win at wembley is something i will always look back on as a highlight of supporting fax.

Think this is a fair assessment. I also thought that when we got back to just a score behind in the 2nd half that we had looked to be the dominant team again, only for us to kick out on the full from which they scored. Then we lost composure as Finny has said. Over the game we still had more clear chances but either gave a bad final pass or dropped the ball.

We missed Calcott, not just for his own presence and impact, but i think we are better when Lannon and Tangata come of the bench together.

Anyone know who the womble is called hoddie on the shaymen forum?

I don’t know him but have been told by my Town mates that he is the main moderator and he lives in Belgium. Contrary to what he says i have been banned from that forum in the past and had a post removed not long ago. He'll be after banning you mate too if you keep posting things he doesn't like or agree with. Lol!

sent you a message...

Quote "We missed Calcott, not just for his own presence and impact, but i think we are better when Lannon and Tangata come of the bench together.'"

Got it cheers

Obviously likes to give it but can’t take it.He’s suspended me for pointing that out .

Just need to agree on double header for the Fax and Siddal challenge cup games at the shay, churn the pitch up good an proper before Town play on the Tuesday night - that will really set him off