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.

Too often Rob is left without support on high balls and then everybody says he can't cope, help the lad out and see what he can do.

That was our big problem !! Last tackle, we watched the ball go to Brambini, let him kick and watched as 3 Sheff players competed against an isolated player.

Throughout Sheffield played with more passion and enthusiasm, looking like a team

Exactly NB and as said before we know certain teams will target him which doesn't take much thinking about.

That being the case to counteract it shouldn't take that much thinking about, he needs some support, by putting some real pressure on the kicker and get some of his team mates in the same area of the field.

It's not only Rob most players at most clubs when isolated like this would be under pressure.

It not neccessarily down to abilty either a lot of the times he does clean up well but the dynamics of it make it more favourable to the on rushing attacking players who are moving at speed against the more static defending guy who's trying to get set while watching a spirraling ball with the thunder of boots in his ears.

Who is going to get smashed, the defender.
Who is not going to be able to get off the ground as easily, the defender.
Who is going to get punished more if he knocks on, the defender.
Not very good odds on coming up with an advantage for Rob and Co in that type of play.

Does anyone remember the Cowboy series in the 50s and 60s called Rin Tin Tin ?What was the Dog called ?

Slightly off-topic but distantly related, Tubbs has obviously targeted Worrincey since he left Eagles. Now if he'd seen these so called weaknesses in the fella's play would he have signed him in the first place ? Hmmmm...
By comparison, Daryl Powell targeted his last season signing yesterday, Ben Cockayne & with some decent return !
Aren't we all experts sometimes ? But hey, these blokes get paid for doing business their way, now then, are there any ex-Fax players knocking around that rhino can target when we play them

Whether or not Tubbs had seen a potential weakness several years ago with Rob or not who knows.

The facts are he did sign him and as you say he thinks he's seen one now and targets him every game.

The Powell / Cockayne analogy proves that coaches will use their knowledge of certain players to gain an advantage from if they get the chance but it did not stop Powell from signing him for Rovers.

I would have thought that would apply to every coach, KH will be no different whether it is an invidual player or a cerain part of the field, you see it all the time.

Whether the player has played for Halifax or not is hardly relevant.

You either work out something to try and reduce it's effect or do nothing.

The forums are here to express an opinion and disguss the game, I don't think I have ever noticed anyone saying "Expert opinion".

These blokes get paid for doing buisness their way and we pay to see the results of it, if we didn't then they would not be here in the first place.

I don't think a few posters saying they would like to see the kicker put under pressure and give the catcher some protection would be too extreme a comment to make when you see what is said sometimes.

Onwards and upwards.

A good coach should be aware of a players strengths and weaknesses when he signs him, to stop his weaknesses he has to give him some support. Aston targets Rob but our coach is not giving him the right support.
Make your own judgement.

Its an impossible task. Last tackle the defence will be pretty compressed ready to slide with the wingers usually ready for the kick. If you can get a low curving quick kick which Brambani seems to have perfected, it makes it nearly impossible for the centre to get accross to be in any position to protect the winger.

If all we can do is leave a three on one against him on the last play Rob may have to be left out against the Eagles whenever Brambani is playing or just hope he doesn't have such a bad game he has to be taken off after 25 mins.

He came back on, though.

The problem is you simply cant drop everyone when they make a mistake. The players that get dropped are the ones that simply arnt performing and lets face it Worrincy isnt one of them. He is superb most weeks but unfortunatley does have these mistakes in his game. Maybe we can the drop the players at marker who dont make it to Brambani to put pressure on him as well.

Many a true word ...............

I agree he is one player that I would pay to go and watch any day of the week.
However Rob is always targeted when we play Sheffield.
Sometimes he copes sometimes he doesn't.
This week he didn't more than usual apparantly.
Again to help him we can pressure the kicker, and give him some cover etc.
If the problem is too difficult to solve and we can't do any of the above then it's either risk it or do a tactical change and try someone else in there like we have in other games.
It would not be dropping anyone in that sense, simply trying another approach that is allready being used and accepted by the club and players.

It doesn't bother me one bit either way.

I was just throwing some "laymens" "MM take note

)" ideas into the ring seeing that he had to be taken off so early which could not be good for him or the team.

Either way we will keep turning up and when he drops the ball groan and when he runs full length jump up and down a bit.

I dunno about that. There was a ready made replacement on the bench. No need to play anyone out of position.

It made some impact in the first half and a little at the beginning of the 2nd. There would be a difference in getting those players back, notably Robinson, and Morro and Nanyn would be like having new signings to some degree.

I did not say play someone out of position .

(Allthough it looked like Casey was in one of the centre births and from memory the last time he played there was at Batley last year and he had a mare.)

Had Tyrer been dropped?

You won't know but we have rotated the three quater line on several occasions this year without it being classed as dropping someone.

The players involved have been .

Tyrer.
Heaton.
Patterson.
Worrincy.
Rettie.
Sherrife (possibly not fit.)
Bowman.(possibly not fit.)

Tactical options may be available for other games.

You are quite right. A fact I also pointed out to those I was sat with. Good tactical play. Rob was then subbed for Reittie.



Agreed. But, he always made an impact on the attacking player, slowing him down enough for others to complete the tackle.



I had forgotten about that! Curious play.



I would have at that point as well. Plus, we would have got the ball back. Possession is the key. Also, I think we were in control as long as we stopped the offloads. As soon as we allowed them to start that we were on the back foot.