Ward would make a difference but it's now just about staying up for me. We need to jag a few wins in the next 6 games. Overall we are so rudderless and poor. Personally, I think we are slightly better with both Myler and Ferres in as well, there are no easy answers. The games v London at Magic is critical as are home games v Hull k, Salford and hudds in next few weeks.

In part tonight I think we suffered from the emotional. Drain in the win v Cas.

We have (in theory) a fairly agreeable month ahead, win those games and the table will look slightly different, I don’t care what we do this bar staying in SL

Watched the highlights. Utterly shocking goal line defence. I have literally seen U19s and amateurs defend better than that. The attitude and effort stinks the place out. Furner needs to start swinging the big stick or he'll end up out of a job before the season ends. If I was him I'd sit down with some of the players involved and ask them if they even want to play semi pro, never mind SL.

Having watched that I've changed my mind re Workington - I'd pick on players that fell off tackles on our line and put a kid in their place. The cup is irrelevant for us - we've no chance at all of winning it and whilst smashing a couple of lower league sides may build confidence the focus should be 100% on SL survival.

A couple of other points. Lolohea looked even less fit if that was possible. He should be getting a performance plan with written warnings re fitness and straight out fired if he doesn't shape up. He's been out of the side for a couple of games and he looks like he spent the whole time in KFC. He doesn't so much run as waddle, and shouldn't be anywhere near the first team. How he isn't ashamed of his physique escapes me.

Also Walker - he may show flashes every now and then but he is a seriously poor defender on the line. He may 'only be 19' and a future superstar, but what matters this season is results, and to me he is just a very weak defensive full back on the line. I don't think a fat Lolohea is the answer there or Golding either, but right now I'd kill for a lumbering but solid full back. I'm sure his fan club will hit back, but half the time on the line he's not in the shot when tries are scored, and when he does he just gets rolled over. Good full backs, even small ones, can read the play, get in position, hit hard and if all else fails do their damndest to make sure the ball is covered.

The really, really annoying thing is that fixing a defence is far easier than attack. Its about attitude and teamwork at least as much as ability. I'm more than happy to give Furner a bit more time, but our defence is unutterably bad, and has been for way too long. I genuinely don't believe that the right coach couldn't sort it out.

Totally agree 100% with the last post(and it might be if this dross continues).The club is in a very sad state.I'm going to the game next Friday,pay my tenner and experience the total lack of atmosphere for next season

Funny how Lolohea gets the big talk, and it certainly deserves some, but by far and away our biggest issue defensively last night was Jones Buchanan. Missed a lot, but far more importantly it was his gaps left because he coukdn’t Move quick enough, that contributed to bigger issues, and these would not show on stats. Also would bet only Handley with his constant backwards/sideways runs would match his low metres per carry.

Agree regarding Walker. He lacks nothing in heart but is just a bit too lightweight in defence at times. Also his kicks out on the full were real poor plays. It doesn't matter how strong the wind is he should be able to land the ball in the field of play.
Lolohea should be dropped, but not sure if we could fire him for his weight issue? We signed an overweight player and that is what we have got. Poor recruitment by Sinfield.
The defensive display was so poor, especially in the first half, it is hard to single players out. JJB was at fault at times but so was the other second rower Smith. Indeed the much maligned Ferres may have strengthened the feeble defence.

Errors from 20 year olds playing in the firestorm pressure at Leeds is not a great surprise. Walker was brilliant against Cas and awful against Wigan and HKR. Inconsistency is quite common with inexperienced/under-developed lads.

Walker wasn't awful against Hull KR though, it is utter nonsense that people are talking. His kicking game with the drop out and two out on the full cost us though that is undeniable. And whilst the drop out is excusable as it was a risk worth going for, the kicks off were not. But people forget his 3 try saving tackles, and the amount of yardage he made, and when the attack moves were put on, the only danger to link. Not quite sure what these people think another fullback will bring, because none of the try's conceeded would have been altered by someone else, and that someone else would more than likely have a negative effect on the attacking plans.

Perhaps he needs to concentrate on his TV career with the awful Alex Simmons and interview himself about his performance.

He's done sadly. Great servant but time to fall on his sword.

The kicks apart I thought Walker had a good game and what has happened to Watkins and why is he captain when you have Merrin

I suggest you watch a replay of the try his elbow never ht the ground due to the fact Walker held it up.

It clearly hit the ground, no question on that.

Walker was one of our better performers, even with the crap kicks.

This board is full of people wanting to give kids a go, fine, but they will make mistakes and Jack Walker is learning his trade in one of the most difficult positions, he will have ups and downs.

In previous seasons when one of our kids made the inevitable mistakes, we had enough quality and determination to recover from it, these days it’s a different story.

Walker needs to develop, but the only way he’ll do that is by playing. Same for Smith and Oledzki.

What we desperately need for these kids to fulfil their potential is to surround them by better quality senior pros. GH and KS have made some terrible decisions in this regard in the last few years.

If you keep signing Championship players you will end up in the Championship.

The team looks like it lacks real pace especially in the forwards, halves and backs - everywhere basically.

Tackling is a real issue - not sure what they do in training. How many times will wingers score untouched against us before the coaching set up do something. As for JJB - time to retire when Drinkwater can run passed you you really do have a problem

I didn't think relegation was an issue but I do now - the likes of Albert aren't going to materially change anything in fact he will dilute an already poor squad

Interesting stats (if you like that sort of thing)

It's uprise teams are targeting our right hand side, Watkins made 28 tackles (with no misses), Hurrell made 3 (with 1 miss), Hurrell attacking stats are off the scale, 13 tackle busts, 235 metres, 15.7 average gain

Christopher; I get what you write BUT the statistic that matters is FORTY FIVE points. This, by HKR. A decent enough team, but hardly a Saints or Warrington. I honestly think that the players need to spend the next fortnight 'busting their balls' in training and doing nothing but goal line defence. Mind you, sadly Lowes will probably be involved and....?

I didn't post them up as some kind of proof we played well, more to show the stark difference between the two centres and to show where teams are targeting us.

Agreed. I haven't seen any evidence so far this season that JJB was worth keeping on another year. When we've got a few more forwards back from injury he shouldn't be near the first team. Perhaps he will decide to retire early? He's not going to enhance his legacy with the kind of performances he's putting in at the moment.

Otherwise... Psychologically, Leeds were clearly in the wrong place from the kick-off. Maybe Powell was right with his comments about the cup final last week?

Walker did not have a good game IMO - I agree he needs to improve his goal-line defence. He did get bashed around in the second half though. The kicks were frustrating.

Hurrell excellent as usual. Watkins is having to do a lot of defence. Unfortunately he looks like a shadow of the player he was at the start of last season.

I don't think the halves lost it for us (we lost because of soft defending), but at the same time, McGuire and Drinkwater were clearly the better pairing. I don't think Lolohea was so bad - he had a hand in a try and another came from one of his cross-field kicks. He took some wrong options otherwise with the kicking game but tbh I thought his kicks were more positive than Myler kicking for touch on every set. He doesn't look like a confident middle defender though.

Dwyer good again apart from the panic pass to Cuthbertson at a critical moment in the game, and a late miss (with JJB) on Drinkwater for one of the late tries. Merrin didn't look as dominant as last week. Few of the forwards seemed capable of really breaking through, whereas the HKR forwards (and Vai Vai) were busting our line with ease. Albert looked fine apart from the forced offloads.

One of our worst performances of the year, if not the worst. On the plus side the squad have a week to re-group with the CC tie. IMO time to rest those who have earned it (no point risking Hurrell and Merrin, both of whom seemed injured towards the end of our last two games). Not sure if the poorer effort players need to be made to play against Workington or replaced by kids. We should surely try out McLelland IMO.

But a lot of the tries were scored up the middle by players just shoving past defenders. Utter garbage.

My point re Walker is that right now, this season we can't afford 1 good game out of 3 or 4. When you're under the cosh its the most important position on the field. And 3 completely awful kicks is 3 more than any player should make.

the first half is easily the worst we've played this season and worse than a lot of last season IMO, especially considering how much we needed a win.

This playing group needs to have a good long hard word with themselves, the desire to defend last night was none existent and in such a crucial part of the season it's unacceptable IMO, I haven't been too downbeat about most of the losses this year because they have been close and at least it looked like we were trying, not last night in that first half though.

Lets move on guys from this thread, we are rewriting the understanding of the word Shite. It gives Shite a bad name.

I think one of our biggest problems this season is how poor we are in contact, which is for me why Singleton is the most frustrating player on the team at the moment.

There are so many examples (last night especially) where we had two/three in the tackle and can't get the man to the ground. 3 of our forwards - 2 props and back rower - we're able to bring down Ben Crooks at one point!!!!

I'm not for the full on arm wrestle grinding game of Wigan under McGuire/Wane, but if you have nearly every opposition player landing on their knees or getting up quickly to ptb, goal line D is going to be under constant pressure.

I know people struggle with JJB, but I think for his lack of mobility he's ok in contact. Merrin and Oledski are the only others who really get into the grapple.

How long will it be before someone whispers in Walker's ear and turns his head ?
Lots of more attractive opportunities out there for a young man with his skill, they'll say.......
He could have the world at his feet, but he may think that if he continues in such a non-team these opportunities might become rarer and rarer.

They already have.