Who should take the blame if the players lack ideas..Pre match SM hinted that we were about to go on a charge and surprise a few people in SL..Well if not now..will it be ever..

Two things arising from that game -

First, we had two teams that were pretty evenly matched in most departments (more later).

Second, the Bulls will do nothing this year as our half-backs (even though Jeffries played far better than his previous efforts) seem to be a spent force, and this was the obvious difference.

The Bulls still made too many mistakes, but that is not unexpected when you are chasing a game, and have to try to force things, but in general, you would have to say that the pack more than matched Hull's pack, and while they did not beat Hull's pack, it was an entertaining 80 minute contest.

But the one shining beacon in this is why, given that we now obviously realise we need a creative halfback (Bird anyone?) did we lump ourselves with a Jeffries/Deacon partnership for 2009, when it just does not offer enough to be better than most of the other teams. As I keep saying, Jeffries never was a No. 6 yet we are persisting with that, and sadly at the moment Deacon is a busted flush. The things he used to be good at for many years, little dabs through, kicks for touch, into the corners, organising the pack and directing play, seem to be a memory now.

IF we knew we were short of some creativity then why the hell did we not snap up Thorman when he became available/

And therein was the difference. Chris Thorman, esq. Take out his brilliance, creativity and opportunism, pace, and balance, and it is an even game. Swop sides and we win easily. Thorman was majestic.

Sheriffe also proved he can't run, when a ball-carrying Yeaman pulled away from a "chasing" Sheriffe.

Enjoyed the game, loved watching Torman and the excellent Manu, and in general a fair performance by the Bulls. Just baten by the Thorman difference.

good assessment and think thats why HULLFC are playing so well , because we have a decent HALFBACK pairing, well we actually have halfbacks this season who can create.

Fair comments! Still reckon you'll come good in plenty of time for the play-offs though! If you get a better First Team coach!!

But didn't! Despite all the errors (most of which were because we were forcing the pass), we were only 2 converted tries behind. I saw a lot of improvement over last weeks match, but still have some way to go. On present performance, Leeds will tear us apart!

On a positive note, I thought Nero had one of his best games for us.

Quick not-very-considered first thoughts...

It was nothing like as bad as the Wigan debacle. Not that anything could be...still pretty depressing though.

We blew the game in the first 6 minutes - 0-12 at that point was always going to be a big ask. At least we matched them for points thereafter.

Our pack was probably marginally the better, although never really got on top. Their halves won them the match I think - its hard to see us making much progress with our own combination now.

Making so many errors. missed tackles, poor passes...was extremely depressing - especially when FC hardly put a foot wrong. Once again how many times were we near their line and blew it? How many times were they near OUR line and scored? Had just a few more of those moves come off, or had some of those strange ref calls gone the other way...we could have won that. But they didn't and we didn't.

In amongst, some flashes of great play which shows we CAN do it.

But why did the team spend the first half looking like they really were not up for it? Much better at times in the second half, till repeatedly we either shot ourselves in the foot or the ref's calls put paid to it.

Looking for positives, and yes there were a few signs, but (and with apologies to Winston) this is not the end of our troubles, or even the beginning of the end. Maybe its the end of the beginning? Maybe...



Huge credit for the huge and fantastic FC support - did your team and your club proud.

Sykes was poor
sherriffe was worse
nero was best back and made some good breaks
crookes wasnt given enough time, was caught out, knocked on was ball was fired at him, but was his first match so hopefully we will persist with him.
Tadulala was quiet and had to come inside to get any ball.
Jefferies was better than previous but should have passeed when had men on inside and out.
Deacon was none existent but nolwt in reserves to drop him.
lynch stepped in as though never beeen away, a good showing.
newton better than previous weeks but still not the old newton.
scruton whats happened since he left leeds, drives it in, but tries stupid offloads.
menzies caused a few problems but was caught out positionally a few times.
morrison quieter than usual, but still battles on, age defying.
burgess Very quiet and not the burgess of the past 2 seasons.
cook tries but nowt came off for him.
langley Needs to get more involved, just plodding along, yes he tackles but offers nowt going forards.
kopczak hes got the size, got the braun, but not the balls, needs to find some or drop to reserves.
platt Another brain fart and threw it 20 yards backwards to noone.

All in all we didnt play till hull was out of sight, they broke thru at will, was fast, clinical and fought for each other, at times we looked as though we was very amatuerish, but if you get coaches from skirlaugh, queenie etc what do we expect.

A very reasonable assessment from FA. Our ball distributing players are way below the standard with some terrible passes by both Jeffries and Deacon today, however there were also some good ones for the first time this season. It actually looks like we've got an attacking game at times now which made it far less frustrating to watch than the KR and Huddersfield games.

One thing that mystified me was McNamara's decision to put Crookes in against Yeaman who's been one of the best performing in the league so far and the lad never really stood much of a chance. But at least macca is showing some faith in the kid.

All in all, I'm feeling a lot more positive than after the disgrace last week but we're still some way off.
Hopefully a weekend away in France will help instill a bit more confidence into the lads and having a weekend away from the ever increasing hoard of booers will relieve some pressure on them which can only be a positive thing.

Nice to hear

But that can't be all of the problem. We (Wakey) have hardly had a half-back all season - yet we can still win games.

Bradford have found Jeffries out though - he goes missing, big time!

[url=http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=rleague/09/03/15/RUGBYL_Bradford_Quotes.htmlMacca vows to fight on, and those calling for his head can say what they want[/url

A missed opportunity really. Had we not started the game so badly we could've been in with a decent chance of winning this.

The start was awful, picking up where we left off versus Wigan. Sheriffe's try before half time was a good finish though and we should've come out all guns blazing. Unfortunately we didn't and we let in too many tries. Manu cause real problems for us and the Hull halves were very slick with the ball.

That's in stark contrast to Jeffries and Deacon. Their passing was abysmal at times. Our backline isn't going to set Super League alight but it's being further handicapped by the crap service it gets. Too many passes went to ground or needed taking at full stretch.

Our defence was frustrating at times, especially early on where we got caught out again on the fringes with players not knowing whether to slide in or out.

Hull didn't have to do much to win and we did tend to drag them down to our level a bit. So much so that the game was winnable at cetain stages but our pants defence put paid to any hopes. It seemed every positive thing we did had to be followed by a couple of negatives. There was no consistency in the performance.

On this form we'll get murdered on Good Friday.

Exactly the halfback's at Bradford are just another convenient excuse as we can't win games.

Would you agree or disagree with the argument that had we had Hull's halves today we would probably have won comfortably?

That's the most worrying thing Hull won with out never having to hit top gear.

Today was the first time I heard a large number of people giving him some stick. TBH on the popular side the team got quite a good hand at the end, the supporters ire was reserved for the coach. He may well be protective of the players but it was him, not the players that got the abuse today.

No I wouldn't say that. We would have still being playing a very limited attacking game plan that doesn't need much defending.

Another thing which i found strange was that, after being the best creative, attacking and freescoring forward that the world has ever seen, we have menzies almost always taking the ball up from first receiver, wtf is that all about? It is not a rle that he has ever played, why isn't he further away from the ruck, among the centres and back rowers, running at defences and doing what he does best? I presume he's playing where he's told to, but we are not utilising him to the best advantage.

In answer to the chap who rightly pointed out that Crookes got eaten, well yes he did, but people can't have it both ways, you can't keep yelling for young 'uns to be given a chance, then be surprised when they play like greenhorns. What next - call s for Mac to drop Crookes?? If the lad is to have any chance then he needs exactly that - a chance. If he gets plenty of game time I am sure he will develop. Getting skinned by Yeaman like he did is what is going to happen to a young lad at times.

In response to Bullseye, well yes we did get badly caught out for the first try, but there are times when you can't blame the team and should just stand up and applaud (as I did) amazing skills such as the two Thorman "specials", those would be scored against anybody and were rugby of the highest order.

I would also like to praise the hull FC fans, sure they're top of the table but it's still early days, yet they cam across in very large numbers.

He got a bit of stick when he came down from his box just before the end of the game.

We would've had a better chance of winning for sure. Winning comfortably? I don't think so, our defence was a let down.

If we had their halves and Willie Manu then probably. We're lacking crispness in the passing and somebody to break the line out wide.

Well, we were stood with our Hull supporting friends and to sum it up, he said thats the worse Bradford team he has seen in 15 years. I couldn't really argue...

thats why we are playing better now because we have 2 decent halves.

Well that was an eventful day.

Personally i thought Hull always looked in control and never really had to hit top gear to beat us. Pretty depressing considering we were the home team.

Some of the defence again was awful, but personally i thought after going down 12-0 so early we panicked far too much in attack. Just needed to control the ball a bit better. The crowd were onto the team a lot more than i was expecting.

I did enjoy some moments like when platt came on a fan shouted "what you putting him on for ?!".

Nero looks like a decent centre but for me he just needs to look for the pass a bit more. Then again he was the best back for us.

You just have to wonder how McNarama ever thought this backline would produce the goods. Sheriffe looked bloody awful. Long gone are the days of at least having one world class back. The lack of pace is shocking.

AND WHERE'S THE FUDGING SUPPORT PLAY!!! It let us down on more than one occasion today.

Excellent point regards Crookes. The young players need exposing to the best centres in super league to help with their development.

I well remember a young Yeaman been taken to the cleaners by Martin Gleeson. Yeaman got taught a lesson that day and vowed that it would never happen again, its all part of the learning curve. Dropping him for the wrong reasons will not help the kids development.

And that shout was meant to motivate Platt just how, precisely?