I don't think we should underestimate some or any of those teams which are part time. I'm sure that there will be quite a few surprises during the course of the season. It can't be taken for granted that just because a club is training full time it automatically means they will be significantly advantaged in a one off game, particularly away from home. That's not to say that there won't be any blowouts, but there will be plenty of close fought encounters I'm sure.

Those part time players will be playing with an equal amount of enthusiasm and in many cases similar skill sets to the ones training full time.

Agree about teams being underestimated and that there are likely to be some surprises, though I'm pretty certain that Jimmy won't allow that within the club - but I think speccies are likely to be a bit more realistic and at the end of the day it doesn't mater a jot what [iwe[/i think.

As you rightly say, a few of those clubs will have similar skill sets however the extra stamina and time honing those skills afforded by being in full time training, plus not having to put in an eight hour shift, is a tremendous advantage and also maybe the major reason why cup upsets are as rare as rocking horse doo doo in RL these days. Having to make the ten after every tackle is a great demand on players' fitness which gives a great advantage to the pro sides, particularly when the semi-pro teams are likely to be the ones doing most of the defending. All that said, there are many games to play and the odd upset shouldn't be too much of a surprise, particularly with the clubs with bigger squads using that depth to keep players fit and maybe not always having their top 17 on the field.

Some interesting comments from Marc Green today. We've reached the 2300 mark, with less than 100 of those being complimentary season tickets for sponsors etc.
Last year we sold around 3500, but over 700 of those were given away for free

The free ones were children's passes. They are making a charge for them this year.

you can see where the 700 figure comes from if they were kids' tickets.

Must admit to being a bit either way on this one; I can certainly see Marc's POV, but to be honest, I've always regarded giving freebies to the youngsters as sowing seeds to harvested in later years and, in many cases, a young child using the freebie needs a full paying adult as chaperone anyway, which is a win win.

Oh there will be upsets thats for sure.
Fev & Dewsbury away should be great games and the games in Cumbria will be testing especially if the weather is nasty.

You might get a good idea as to how good a coach Lowes is going to be,the last couple of years has shut the anti Rowley lot up at Leigh.

The thing is, last season only Leigh were full time. They lost 1 league game all season. There are 3 full time teams next year, Leigh, London and us. So realistically, even though the part-timers are going to push us to the best of their ability, I don't see us having losable games apart from against Leigh and London. It's certainly not a level league in terms of funds for players or in terms of player ability. I think I read some where that out of our 29 players we've got something like 23 who've played at SL level. You compare that round the rest of the league and you're looking at maybe half a dozen in each team who've played at the higher level.

I know a lot of people don't want to say we've got an easy season because they don't want to look either arrogant or the possibility of having egg on their face depending on results. However, I think that should we lose more than 3 league games next season then that is an unacceptable number of losses of a team in our position.

Leigh were part time last season.

My understanding is that Leigh were 'more or less' full time, ie they had a bulk of full time squad members but had retained the odd part time player who, for whatever reason, didn't want to give up their 'day-job'. Better question to ask might be, "when did they do the bulk of their training - Tues and Thurs nights or during the day"?

Leigh's squad trained in the evenings and on Saturday mornings. None were on full time contracts last season.

It will take a while for the squad to gel and we will be a prized scalp for many teams. There could be a couple of setbacks early on.

Last season there were 4 players that didnt have what could be described as ' normal regular ' jobs, they worked for the local community trust these included Ryan Brierly and Liam Kay

So we do expect a significant improvement in performances this coming season

Ah, so I got it back to front.

'They' [the full timers reckon it takes a season for the total benefits of full time training to kick in, but the basic advantages of not having to put a shift in before training and doing your workouts before you get knackered must be fairly immediate I'd have thought..you do have the benefit of keeping the majority of last season's squad [unless I've got that wrong as well!! so that makes up for a fair bit too, I'd guess.

Good luck - except in a couple of your games...

Todays article says we are now at 2500.

Could we hit 3k with one last push?

Well the quote from the T&A is that if sales continue as they are doing that we're on target to hit the 4k figure the club wanted. I'd imagine there'll be a big up take around the end of Jan when people have been paid, I know that'll be when I'm buying my ticket and I've a few friends who are doing likewise.

Plus, I'd imagine we've sold more than 2500 as people have said about previous milestone stories, but this is a milestone along with a feel good story about the person who got the ticket.

More good news and a really nice positive story of the club going that extra mile.

I'll think we'll get around 3300 which is a fantastic achievement considering the price increase and the fact we've been relegated.

As roofaldo said, they should be a surge around end of January when people get paid. A lot have waited until after Christmas!

It's not disimilar to "the pledge" where they drip fed news of the total increasing. I'm sure we're always at a higher figure than the articles state. We perhaps won't hit the 4k target but 3k is surely going to be surpassed.

There's those of in the "I'll get one, I'll get one, I'll get one, ah bugger, the season's started. Screw it." brigade. Our numbers are growing.

As long as they turn up fairly regularly it'll be ok. Given the higher prices, I suspect a few who got a season ticket before may well feel it'll be cheaper to just pay when they go.

Well they can add two more as we got our yesterday

Has anyone tried to buy a season ticket online ?? It's impossible - can't even find prices !

Looks like the links don't work. Have you phoned them up to tell them?

Only just tried to buy one from my phone. Can you remind me adult terrace price please?