I still see us mid table this year not in the playoffs

But that is a mid-table with no bankruptcies, no player legal actions, no financial black-holes, the prospect of full funding next season, a fantastic management team in place, a host of home-grown players in the first team (and more coming through), and also the club running an academy, U19s and reserve teams.

But for the benefit of our more 'glass-half-empty' members in here we do have: expensive gameday tickets, no large sizes for replica shirts, the stadia being a bit of a shed, our chairman being eloquent if loudly uncouth, the beers being low quality and the gameday food being poor quality too.

Yeah, I'll be happy with a year of mid-table averageness. I think we will be progressing upwards in the next few years anyway.

Just watching the Leigh v Rochdale game and I'm particularly impressed with the two players on loan from St Helens; Danny Richardson and James Bentley.

Another Championship cracker awaits.

Richardson has performed very well, the last couple of games, after a couple of 'average' performances. He finally seems to have got over the 'sulk' of being left out by saints, and is now playing with a smile on his face. It's only a matter of time, before he is back at Saints, long term.

Our best D/C has been Luke Douglas - a model of consistency and professionalism.

Like you say, it should be a cracker.

I suppose mid table in a 14 team league could be 6th to 8th. And 6th isn't exactly far away from 5th



So, yeah, mid table is what I personally expect (and would be happy with) but if we get a bit of roll on, and win a run of games, then we could end up in the Top 5 quite easily.

I think it will be tight league, with teams beating each other. Once you take out Toronto and Toulouse, then there's a bunch of teams who seem on a pretty similar level, and we are one of them.

Mmm, James Bentley. That name rings a bell, wasn't he one of our juniors who left to join a Super League team a few short years ago.

This is definitely a must win for us. We need to start dominating teams and putting in a full 80 minute performance. The effort shown at Widnes proves that we can compete and we need to start showing some consistency in both attack and defence

We're certainly not scoring much. Aren't we about third last in terms of points scored?

Fourth last. Batley, Barrow & Rochdale have scored less. Rochdale have played 2 less games, but on average they'd still be below.

This is the thing with a competitive championship. There's few teams that you can cut loose against and hone your attack. No disrespect to West Wales but those games were training with contact. That said, I look at our side and there's a lot more points in them than their showing at the moment. Settled halfbacks would obviously help immeasurably.

ex Bradford Bull/retired James Laithwaite trained with Leigh Centurions today....

It's sounding like Lilley is doubtful again according to the T&A.

Not having a settled halfback pairing is what has hampered our attack, we've had more combinations than a deck of cards. That's mainly been down to injury.

Absolutely, and sadly it isn't looking much better.

I'm hopeful the Lilley story in the T&A is just the opposite of last week where JK said all along he was hopeful he'd play but, of course, didn't, presumably to keep Widnes in two minds. So let's hope he's just keeping Leigh guessing, but that this time he will....

It would be good to have more clarity on the half back situation.

We've heard nothing more about Chisholm, other than the various rumours that he was being 'offered' to other clubs and there'd been some sort of fallout with Kear. Is he injured? Unsettled? Out of favour?

Then we've got Keyes who has obviously got this long-term back trouble. Is this temporary? Short-term? Long term? Is he going to be even getting to having to give up the game entirely? Who knows?

For some reason we keep seeming to have this situation where people get what appears to be a short-term injury and then they end up being never heard about again for ages! Seems a bit odd...

Someone asked him when he would be back and he replied:

From what I’ve heard Keyes’s back injury was a difficult one. He had a lot of discomfort but the Bulls staff couldn’t pick up what was wrong. It’s taken a few visits to specialists to identify the issue. I’m not sure what the result has been. Here’s hoping he gets the treatment he needs.

Chisholm sounds from that like he’ll be back in training in 2-3 weeks. I guess we’ll know more about if he’s in Kear’s plans after that.

I just have an inkling he may not be.

Fair enough

Lilley ruled out now which is a blow.

Minor point but no parking available to purchase online for Sunday - bumper crowd already bought tickets or reduced availability?

Who knows?

Of the 19 I'd go with the following:

Pickersgill, DFJ, Evans, Oakes, Ryan, Minchella, Wildie, Crossley, Hallas, Kirk, Webster, Farrell, Wood. Subs Flanagan, Bustin, Green and Storton. Missing out Gibson and Grant.

It's going to be tough going against Leigh without any halves again.

Our squad:- https://leighrl.co.uk/wp/blog/2019/03/2 ... is-sunday/ Three halves in there, so one will miss out. (Ridyard, Woods, Richardson) Debut (yet again!) for Emmitt and possibly Higginson.

Our squad:- https://leighrl.co.uk/wp/blog/2019/03/2 ... is-sunday/ Three halves in there, so one will miss out. (Ridyard, Woods, Richardson) Debut (yet again!) for Emmitt and possibly Higginson.

Could you lend us one