Sorry ... Clough is who said it on the website

Ferguson?

Lord Lucan? Shergar?

I've heard Matt Orford is popping over for a week or so, says he feels he owes a game or two..

Mentioned it on other thread, but Gaskell, Siejka and Mullaney back in full training which is good news.

I am feeling much more optimistic after our pre - deadline business was concluded. Looking at the squad for the Fax game it looks like there are 5 or 6 players to now add into the mix, including those out through injury.

Yeah hopefully, looking on some other forums most are looking past us and focusing on Leigh and each other so might fly under the radar and give them a shock

Well the results are in and the middle 8's are going to line up like this

1. Widnes
2. Hull KR
3. Leigh
4. Bradford
5. Salford
6. Wakefield
7. Sheffield
8. Halifax

So we've got Widnes, Salford, Sheffield & Halifax at home and Leigh, Wakefield and Hull KR away.

If we're going out at full strength then I think we should be able to push for wins in our home games.

Agree glad we have Widnes at home as opposed to away, long as we fire on all cylinders no reason why we can't win 5/7 may be close but possible

We have to play four SL teams and have lost to the other Championship sides in the middle 8's. We are now relying on several players that have not played for god know how long. Must be putting more that fluoride in the water these days.

Take it your a glass half full type of guy?.

I'm open to arguments if anyone has anything other than ' We have a lot of really good players that are coming back and will turn us into world beaters'. Has anybody heard when Gaskell will be fit?

Gaskell, Mullaney and Siejka are all back in full contact training. Which means essentially they are fit now and just not being risked.

Gaskell has been fit to play for a couple of weeks now, just decided not to risk in what are fairly meaningless games in terms of outcome. Pretty sure Jimmy would of wanted a better effort than what we saw in the 1st half.

If this is to be believed. However Jimmy has not shown that he is inclined to 'not risk' players hence is running GOB into the ground. He has his top 17 and they play if possible. So why hasn't Gaskell played if he is supposedly fit. After such a long layoff surely he needed game time before things got serious. Or will he be played whilst unfit as a last throw of the dice.

Who is GOB?


If you mean AOB, he only played in the second 40 today. So at least he got a bit of a break and they now have two whole weeks to have a few days rest and then get ready for the important fixtures.
Let's wait and see how things shape up over the next fortnight. I admit we're not going into the business end of the season in ideal circumstances, but it can't be helped now.

It really is all about what happens next. With key players fit, we have the quality to beat any side in the 8's on our day. I guess we'll see if Jimmy has the ability to get us up to the right level of performance consistently enough.

What would be the point in playing Gaskell - whether he's fully fit or not - against Halifax when our league position is already decided? There's been times this season when the 'top 17' has played when possible but there's no need to do that when we know that we've already qualified for the Middle 8. We've been taking it fairly easy for a while now because we know that the matches in the last few weeks have been unimportant. The season starts in 2 weeks time.

On paper the Bulls have a better side than Fax (and Sheffield), but the difference is that Fax are now on a winning run of 9 games on the trot, whereas you've just lost 2 and drawn 1 against the other Championship clubs in the middle 8's - and that's without thinking about the SL clubs we all have to play.

Fax have no expectation from the middle 8's (to quote Richard Marshall, we want to have some fun and maybe cause a few upsets), but your prep for the business end of the season isn't exactly looking that good...

Drawn 1 and lost 2 at a point where we were guaranteed 2nd place and were playing without any actual half backs and the two losses were by 2 points and by 4 points in games where we only really played for part of the game. Hardly worrying results given the players we've got to come back into the side.

Winning and losing are both habits that are hard to lose. As I say, Fax have no expectations in the middle 8's. We're here to have some fun and see what happens. The Bulls seem to be hell bent on gaining promotion, and I think (regardless of results) which set of fans are going to enjoy the next 7 matches the most.

All the best.

Gaskell ripped us apart at Blackpool (he was the difference), but there's not as much between us as you seem to think - a winning team and great team spirit can be a great leveller. My main fear for Fax is being able to turn up in high intensity games 7 weeks in a row (as part timers).

Yes and we've played the last 7 weeks without Gaskell, winning 50% of the games in that time, hardly a poor run. Adding Gaskell, Mullaney and hopefully whoever our new signing is into the Bulls line up will improve us

For us to rest so many players today and still beat a full time team is quite an achievement. I just cant see Bradford getting promoted, you take Gaskell out of the team and as has been seen the last few weeks they are no better than any of the teams around us, just not enough quality apart from him especially for a FT team.

I'm reasonably confident you'll see a much improved performance next time we play one another at Odsal. Whether we will be promoted, well the odds aren't in our favour but there is enough quality in the squad if the players apply themselves.

Thankfully Gaskell and co are currently fit and will hopefully remain so for the next couple of months. Any side will struggle without their halves fit and out on the pitch to be fair. We've had a slack few weeks but it's a clean slate tomorrow and I've seen enough of this side this seasonto say they certainly can get into the million pound game at the very least.

We are going to find out soon and then we will just have to accept the truth.