Out of curiosity have any of you encountered problems in gaining your tickets for this match?

I only ask because 2 friends of mine who are long time saints season ticket holders ordered and paid for 2 standing tickets (delivery charge also) at the end of november i think they said. They still hadn't recieved the tickets at the end of last week so rung the office to find out what the crack was. They were told that for some reason their tickets had been blocked even though all the money had come out of their account no problem, and obviously with the standing being sold out they couldnt give them the standing tickets they paid for.

I'm assuming this is probably just an isolated mistake but my 2 friends was just interested to see if this has happend to anyone else

saintsrlfc.com/news/page/1554 Nearly 13k according to this.

saintsrlfc.com/news/page/1554 Nearly 13k according to this.

not heard any problems ,but then we have had ours since they started selling them before Xmas I think, bought direct from the club shop in town

Are we going to have some kind of sing song to say thank you to Eamonn tomorrow? It would be good if we could get something going as an appreciation to him for what he's done.

Also it would be nice if we could have a decent song for the first song sung at Langtree Park.

Perhaps a super slow 'When the saints go marching in' or 'you light up my senses'.

well the first song was "oh when the Saints!" during the training evening, but yes I agree a thank you for Mr Mac would be great

Sold out tonight. Enjoy the game folks.

I think Eamonn knows how much he is appreciated. I think he would just want us to get the place rocking tonight. First song for me has to be "Oh when the Saints go marching in" Would be nice to think we could get it going just after the first roar when the players run out.

Well the line up has been settled and La Frank is playing prop with Flash At loose. All in all a very good defensive pack. Probably with Sia and wilkin running the breaking lines forward. Three props on the bench can't be bad either. Once TP is fit that will add another attacking forward to the ranks.

Not tonight it wasn't! Lots and lots of work to do in defence, especially for a few players. Laffranchi, Soliola, Meli (the latter two, no surprises there!).

We really did miss James Graham defensively.

Well, in all respects really.

But it was an interesting game. And an interesting take on 'sell out' as well! The latter is nothing new for Saints mind, since a sell out is rarely a sell out when it's Saints.

I thought it as a total shocking display tonight, I know it's a friendly game and don't mean anything but what the hell have we been practicing in ore season training?

The attack was poor, very slow hands and one man rugby.

The defence was terrible and I was shocked at the ease they opened us up at times.

The kicking game was worst I've seen by a super league club, lomax and lance don't look like natural kickers.

I thought Gaskell improved us a hell of a lot when he moved to stand off. He'd be my first name on the sheet in the halves as he's a natural halfback who has a kicking game.

Foster = new Meli on kicks.

It's always hard to tell alot from a friendly (especially when you are not there), but one thing came across on the radio pretty clearly, we needed more than 1 friendly. Thats it now, a couple of weeks no more games and we are into the real thing.

Reading Royce comments in the programme, he states because of the amount of games we played last year, he thinks it's better having no proactive games and also says he gave players long holidays to be fresh for the season.

IMO you could tell we've not had much practice.

I agree that we need another friendly. Widnes were on their third and you could tell. But we aren't going to get another friendly and so we will just have to hope that those who didn't put 100% effort in/had a bad game/whatever will buck up their ideas next time out and that our combinations will be clearer to the coach as a result of tonight's match.

One thing's for sure, we need Gaskell on that pitch.

Training is nothing like your first match together as a team in months, and a new look team too (and you should know that as you've played the game!). There was clearly no Jammer putting in last ditch tackles tonight and I think Roby looked a bit lost at times without him on his shoulder. A few of our players need to step up. Unfortunately, without Jammer, and with us a bit at sea, the defensive frailties of a few of our players stuck out like sore thumbs. But we also showed some good signs. Makinson looked the business, Gaskell changed everything, Hohaia looks class in attack, Dixon impressed me. It will just take time.

Remember, we looked pretty shocking against Hudds in our friendly against them this time last year, but we still got to the Grand Final.

We defo need Gaskell on the pitch and playing stand off. He's the natural one of all our halves and his kicking game is 100 times better than lomax and lance.

I think lance and lomax are good players and highly rate both but I don't think they fit as halfbacks and would 100% play Gaskell at 6.

For me, friendly games are all about putting in to practice everything you e trained in pre season like moves, set plays and game plans. Tonight It was just one man rugby, nothing new at all.

That hit by sia was worth the ticket price tho!

As an outsider i'll be stunned if Gaskell isn't starting week in week out for Saints this season. He was exceptional at the back end of last season and doesn't deserve to lose his place.

I'd much prefare to play you with Wellens at 1, Hohaia at 6 and Lomax at 7 then I would with Hohaia at fullback and Gaskell and Lomax in the halves. It's a tough call to shift Wellens in to a new position or use him as your bench back (that Simmons seems to love) but I think it's one that needs to be made in all honesty.

It's Makinson at 1, Gaskell at 6 and Lomax at 7 that I want to see. Gaskell is our best attacking player and has the best kicking game at the club. Dropping him for Hohaia would be a monumental mistake.

I thought lance looked better when he moved to fullback, you could tell from the positions he got in that he's a out and out fullback.

I thought foster looked a liability on high balls again, if makinson can kick as good as people say then I'd drop foster and put tommy on wing.

Thats certainly a long term line up for you but for now I think it's clear Hohaia is going to play somewhere. To me his best position has always been fullback and with Gaskell offering a top kicking game you need him in the team.

Gaskell would be the first name i'd have down in the halves simply because of his kicking. I'd play Hohaia fullback or back up hooker or even move Lomax in to fullback before leaving that lad out.

If I was naming the backline i'd least like to face against us at the minute i'd go-

1- Hohaia 2- Makinson 3- Wheeler 4- Meli 5- Foster 6- Gaskell 7- Lomax

To use Gaskell as your bench back would be a sad waste.

Gaskell made a huge difference as soon as he came on tonight and until he did so Saints kicking game was utterly abysmal.

Mixed bag for me.

The kicking game in the first half looked awful, however it must be said that Saints were kicking into a very strong wind.

I thought the pack were out muscled for quite a bit of the match by Widnes, only Perry and Clough showed the ability to make yards in heavy traffic.

Foster was all at sea for large parts of the match in defence. It was comical at times.

The players were not familiar were the touchlines were, and ran into touch on a number of occasions.

Lance is a fast elusive runner, but didnt create anything with the ball in hand. He is the type of player that at times will run up his own backside. Will frighten opposition defences though as teams wont know what he is doing. Problem is this also applies for Saints as well.

When Gaskell came on, the team moved the ball around the field far better. His try was good and the ball he gave for Dixons well taken try was superb

Makinson was outstanding. Started at fullback and was like a rock in defence and dangerous in attack. Excellent break then perfectly timed inside pass for Melis try. Also scored an excellent try.

Lafranchi was pretty anonymous.

Ashe looked dangerous when on the field. He seems to glide across the pitch and beat people without seemingly trying. Could be a breakthrough season for him.

Soliolas big hit. BOOOOOOOM!!!, he then goes and misses a number of tackles that he really should have made.

Wheeler didnt fall apart on contact with the opposition.

We got pinged for crossing a few times in the game which is a sign that the players are still not upto speed with the moves yet.

Defence was as porous as one of the Typhoo tea bags.

Lance Hohaia cannot play at fullback as he cannot catch. He should be the back from the bench who gets 4 minutes at the end of matches. Gaskell's a better player.

How did Widnes fair in this game ?

It will be nice to read an unbiased report..........