Um, which youngsters are you talking about? There was Gaskell, Lomax, Dean and Ashurst out there last night. Unless you include Moore as well. Dean was a turnstile, it has to be said, but Wellens wasn't much better. In fact, none of them was. None of them could tackle last night. Lomax worked hard though.

Damn right it was, which is why it is so annoying that we didn't even bother competing much less trying to win.

He's right though. There just wasn't any urgency or energy in the side. Even in the 2nd half when we had the majority of the ball, we didn't play with any real speed. Too many players just didn't turn up to play. It was a really poor performance.

Can't believe all this slagging off of players and coach as we go through this transition period compounded by one of the worst injuries situations on record.

Can't believe no one has mentioned anything about Ian Smith who always referees us in to this type of non flowing anti rugby game, we only win 1 in 3.

Can't believe people thinking the Catalans should be beaten by any side we put out, bottom of the league, but these past 3 weeks they are playing with form.

Think you should all get over it, we lost, we move on and support the team and hope we get our best 17 ready and in form for the play offs.

I didn't expect to win last night, all the signs was there for a loss.

I bet he's never left a Saints game before half time like you did that time at home to Hull KR a few years ago. That's at least 2 faces you've got.

You're on form this week.

Cheers, I've found my mojo. Don't start with any United stuff.

Good summary.
I presume you mean Lee,and not Dean and Gaskell because I thought Dean was his usuall self.

Rubbish. We had three players of note out last night. Three! I doubt anyone expected us to come up with great creative moves given who we were missing, but I'm very sure that most of us expected a team who could pass, catch and tackle and who could actually be bothered turning up to play. No way did our three missing players justify that pathetic performance or our coach's dumb interchanges.


Because we all know Ian Smith is crap and making the ref the excuse is pathetic. The team should not have been so ill-disciplined as to get his attention. But they were so they handed some try-scoring opportunities to the Dragons on a plate and then couldn't be bothered attempting to stop the tries. They even hung around while one Dragons player trotted under the sticks after crossing at the touchline. I've seen kids play better and with more enthusiasm.

But that my case in point. We didn't have any creative players in the team which puts pressure on other parts of our game. A strong stable 17 would have covered most of those Catalan moves, but we are fragmented in key positions, with the result being we just have 17 individuals not playing as a strong unit.
When I bought the match programme and saw the ref as I. Smith we all knew we were going to get this slow, scrappy, frustrating type of game. This guy is just not superleague material, fully endorsed by guys who I imagine know what they are talking about in Millward, Anderson and Potter by taking concerns up with the RFL.

8,500 last night suggest you fellas can't be 'arrised turning up in the first place!!!!

Hey, that's a good crowd against Catalans. We usually scrape about 7000 to their matches.

We've got a couple of thousand working on the new multi million £ ground at the moment. Battling on all fronts so to speak.

You mean that because we were not creative, we were also incapable of passing, catching and tackling? C'mon! Passing, catching and tackling are basic skills of rugby league and there is no excuse for poor execution at this level. None. Had we been one-dimensional and executing simple set plays I would have understood as without our creative players - and clearly we have only two, which is a worry - we would have had to rely upon more basic stuff. But that was not the issue. We couldn't tackle our way out of a wet paper bag. We didn't put pressure on the kicker. We didn't chase. We didn't run. We didn't make any effort at all. And we fired passes to the head, the ankles, any old place except the chest and that is simply very poor play.

No excuses deserved. While Catalans played well, we simply did not turn up and that had absolutely nothing to do with the loss of Pryce and Eastmond. We put up a far, far better show after their respective exits last week.

We were very poor last night the only exceptions were Gaskell,Meli and Jammer.

If we don't improve soon we could end up in 5/6 place never mind 2/3rd.

I thought Lomax was very good again as well

Yeah sorry I forgot about Lomax that lad will go far in the game,quality player.

I think you are over reacting on a few counts. Where you at the match by the way!

Maybe. Saints just annoy me when they play like that without any justification and throw away two valuable league points in the process. There were too many good players on that pitch last night for that level of performance to be justified.


Alas, yes.

No one player played particularly well, in fact the overwhelming majority of them were awful, does this warrant two 'Potter Out' threads? No. I'm a big believer that once the players cross the whitewash it is their responsibility for what happens on the pitch, sure the coach can give them orders or demand changes but its down to the players to follow through with these.

Getting a bit sick of people automatically reverting to blaming the coach when the truth is we didn't do the basics, or play as a team against a more determined and well drilled side on the night.

This isn't a Potter out thread though, he's already gone. It was a thread questioning his appointment in the first place.

The fact that the players went out and put in such a performance, lacking in motivation and enthusiasm, is at the end of the day the ultimate responsibility of the coach. The players have proved time and time again they have no bond with him or will to win for him. In the past previous coaches would have been able to inspire the team to win games like that, even if it took a rousing second half 10 minutes to pull us clear. A lack of motivation and determination is a classic failing of the team under Potter.

It's just not worked.

I agree that potter might have been wrong choice to coach saints but he's done ok with injuries this year and has had to blood alot of young lads this year.

It is prob good for both potter and saints that he's going at the end of the year as he just don't fit in at saints, he's just not right for job but I think he's a ok coach.

The players shouldn't need to be inspired by potter or get fired up by potter, every time they cross that line they should show heart and pride in the the shirt!

They know saints fans pay there hard earned cash to watch them, they are well paid for playing the game they love.

If they need a coach to get them up to play for saints then maybe they shouldn't be here.

The recent game against Wigan would suggest otherwise - a true display of will to win. I guess you'll say they didn't win it for the coach - typical response when a team wins, then they lose because they aren't playing for the coach.

When we had one fit half and our organising hooker at Wigan we won. When we had one fit half and no organising hooker against Leeds we were in front until that one fit half got injured. When we had no fit halves and no organising hooker against Catalans (with a full debutant and a back rower returning after 2 months injured filling in) we look, err, disorganised. Funny that.