God bless the Pidgeon twins, at the back of the chara singing "always look on the bright side of life" not many of us joining in.

bad time to play away from home for so long.

We were poor, very poor, Bambini killed us with his kicking game, most of their try's came directly from his high kicks targeting our wingers.

Couldn't make the game as i got in too late so can't comment on the play.

Overhall though of course very dissapointing but just on tonight we have lost away to the reining champs as most other sides have.

Bit of pride hurt as well because we all thought we were a bit better than recent results have shown.

Time to consolidate and keep working hard and hopefully get some players back which will give us a lift for the rest of the season.

Keep your heads up boys long way to go yet.

Sorry faxcar, it's not like me, but we were well beaten. We looked poor and devoid of ideas. Should have gone for two points early on but it appeared by the time taken to decide not to nobody knew what to do.
Need a kick up the backside and may I respectfully suggest a few new players.

Brambani was decidedly ordinary when he played for us. And how long ago was that? Just shows the value of a good coach and a team that gels.

Wasn't he man of the match in the playoffs last year when they beat us easily?
Wasn't he man of the match two weeks ago when they beat us easily?
His kicking game was superb.

Looks like Sheffield own us at the moment they are the team to beat maybe even better than Fev this year they are on a roll.
As for us well the next game will tell us a lot as we need a win and a good one to get the wheels back on.
Was the crowd 1100 - REALLY?

Brambani was pap for us, bit like Moore for Batley! Finn for Fev!! Still all about the Fax! We are and always will be the team to beat in the Championship!

aye I agree ross. And over the last few weeks thats exactly what you've been!!

Fev to beat York on Sunday - we will be second. Sheffield to win their game in hand we will be third, one point above Batley. Wheels come off?

Not come off but wonky, Fev to come to us, Batley to come to us, Leigh away.
I believe we can beat Batley and =#0000BFLeigh ( cue Sheffield Brown nose Charlie) Fev on a good day, for us, we could win.
But and it's a big =#0000BFbut we need to improve.
Any way for this morning all is forgotten, got to take our lives in our hands and enter the county that time forgot, off to watch grandson no.1 play football in Padiham.

That was painful to watch last night.

I think the club needs to really start planning for next season as to which players we need. I also realize KH dosnt want to use a quota player but needs must, it is obvious to anyone watching our last few games that we need players in our 3 key positions of 6,7,9.

Handforth, Thackery, and the Ashalls are simply not good enough to play for a team near the top of the table. The difference between us and the top teams is the quality they have in those positions. I have no doubt we have the best pack in the league and our backs for the most are good enough but our halfs are poor and no other team can really worry about playing against them.

If we are honest we probably need to bring in players that are better then Patterson, Tyrer, Rettie, Sheriffe, Handforth, Thackery, 2 Ashalls, Casey. Thats probably about 9 players that wouldnt get in any of the top sides in this league and I just cant see there been that many top quality players available. You really have to question what the club was thinking in its recruitment last winter especially when it comes to the hooking role.

OH DEAR , OH DEAR John , CHARLIE KNEW

i did warn you about self backslapping , and being shot down in May , as Francis Albert used to say "THATS LIFE ", Im more concerned about Littlerich



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John i hope to see ya next week at the LSV , Charlie will be in Legends bar before the game with my good Fax friend Mick aka Bentleyman , come over for a drink .

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Stating the obvious but only at the end of the season will we really know after all the usual factors such as having a good run then the dip in form, injuries, a bit of good fortune and a bit of bad luck etc.

We are so unpredictable at the moment who can say what we will do come the end of the season,it could be extremely good or pathetically bad or anywhere in between.

On recruitment
I think the process when considering players is they are in to do a job.

The job will be team specific as each coach will have a certain way he wants his team to play and this will be the main focus with the occasional tweak factor depending on the conditions and opposition.

It comes down to can they do the job they were signed to do for the team most of the time taking into consideration that every player will have the occasional howler.

If they can't then you ask why not, is it something that can be fixed by changing a few things round without having to reinvent the wheel to make the club fit the player.

If they still can't do the job either because they are not good enough or they just can't fit into the team then they would have to be replaced because it would mean that not only were they not playing very well for themselves but the team as a whole would be obviously negatively affected.

Where some of the players are at the moment in this situation I think is still work in progress but the BOD, KH and the rest of the coaching staff will be aware of what is going on and if necesary make the changes if required, they think too much of the club to do anything else.

There is only so much you can do mid season so I don't expect anything radical anytime soon.
It may just be getting some of the players back and getting the right blend and way of playing.

In spite of the obvious dip in form and recent poor play nevertheless having played everybody and just starting the second half of the season we are still near the top end of the table so if we could get it right then we will be in with a shout.

If not then I'm sure most if not all of us are battle hardened enough with watching the Fax over the years to be able to live with it.

Come on the FAX not over yet.

Charlie my old mate we know you knew because you have told us about a million times in the last fornight.



Never mind the clown proffesion you should be a fortune teller, I tried it once but had to close the booth due to unforseen circumstances

Yet we still struggle to create chances, dosnt take a genius to see where the problem is............

John ive tried the Fortune Telling , im not very good ,i NEVER take results for granted as anything can happen , i did forcast a poor May for you Fax fans , as i felt you were getting to overconfident .

As you so rightly say though , its far from over yet , this League is by far the best , you know most things i say is Banter , i mean no harm , im not to sure about Fax fans calling Worrincy the Warrior



i prefer to call him the Worrier , he worries me under the high ball





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The results don't lie yeah, but you and I both know, you don't win anything mid season! As long as we are in the mix come the end of the season I'm sure we'll be ok.

Charlie it's all the Leythers fault.

I blame Leigh for getting us too over confident, if you lot hadn't been so bad when you played us we wouldn't have got so carried away.



Rob has his weaknesses and Mark Ashton will know what these were and still are better than most coaches.
Without these he would have been snapped up by a SL club by now.


Unfortunately to exploit them it does not take some deep "cunning plan" or ingenius coaching strategy.
You just boot the ball as high as possible as often as possible in his direction knowing that he regularly knocks on or gets out jumped.
Sheffield have it off to a tea, the only ways to stop it are to put pressure on the kicker, give him some protection and to spend hours on the training field catching the dam thing, if he were to take a few and return them with interest as he can then they may think twice about doing it.

PS. I'm not John, that's the other guy who often gets mistaken for George Clooney.

That's me, a simple mistake to make.

Charlie I will be at the LSV but sadly not in Legends bar, we tend to go in the bar at Leigh East
Hoping a good friend of mine, over from Australia and a Swinton fan will be with us.

Brambani's kicking game and our inability to catch, (Worrincy & Fieldhouse), Henderson putting in an almighty performance, and Sheffield's line speed in defence were our downfall last night. It looked like a lack of 'heart' from some of our team, but I thought Thackeray played well. Tried damned hard to slow them down and certainly put in the tackles. There was too much shooting out of the line and leaving gaps big enough for a super-tanker to go through. I have no doubt that many players are competing with injuries, and it is unfortunate that our squad isn't big enough to cope with that.

Onwards and upwards.

As i said couldn't make the game.

How did our bench do, did it have any real impact or just stay the same?

We seem to be a bit light at the moment.

I am convinced that before we lost Robbo and later Adamson having that extra size kept us on top in the forwards for longer periods.

If we could get Morro, Robbo and Luke Adamson back and possibly Micky Nan in the centres the extra grunt could make a difference.

What do you guys think?

Agree, but two-points, whenever Bambini kicked high in the first half Rob had no cover and yet there were three men on him on both occasions same in the second half with Patterson. Point two yes Thackeray put in a lot of tackles but he also can be guilty of "shooting out of the line"
The biggest brain f"rt was when Scott kicked on the first tackle, even if Patterson had caught it he wouldn't have got far.
I still say take two points when offered, I think that would have put us in a different position, two more points and ball back.
As you say, onward and upward, hopefully.