Just curious. Who's this strongest 17 loses should have put out? Henry and mendeika/shaw are only obvious omissions I can see.

Thought we were struggling with speed of ruck anyway but when Gaskell went off we really struggled to regroup. First 30 mins were a disaster. We regrouped a bit after that and pretty much matched wakes for remainder of match.
Key now is when players that were missing return. Mullaney and Nielsen should be ok for next week but Gaskell is big worry.

A useful exercise? Really?

That is what pre season friendlies are for. Not the biggest game we have had in years.

What a ridiculous thing to say.

Players who we thought were decent players were made to look like mediocre championship players. We had a problem when a tubby Lee Smith started to look head and shoulders above ours. Most of their players who I previously thought were average looked really enthusiastic.
They could have warned us they were going to try really hard today!

Ferres must have nightmares about assembling a 32 man squad with only one decent halfback.
If Jimmy ever says how good Addey is at SH again we can now all point to Super Leagues worst teams half backs and how they had a party out their today. Did they need a shower after the game?

We all thought Sidlow and Clough have been good all year. They were bossed all over the pitch by SL’s worst pack.
I went today expecting us to beat them with pace. They ran through us and around us.

I came away feeling a little nauseous as it is clear that we have been fed too many “bigging up” statements from Jimmy and Steve about "just a poor day at the office" when we have been lucky to beat middle of the table championship teams and we have allowed ourselves to be blinkered to all of those very poor performances because we were constantly told we are a SL team playing in this league. Just wait till the business end and then we will see. Yeh, Right!

We got into the habit of saying every week “they will lift their game and make it a difficult game – it could be a banana skin against teams - that had no chance of a top 4 finish for god’s sake”. We accepted that as the reason for poor performances - other teams really wanted to beat us! – all season. Today a very poor SL team also lifted their game surprisingly and completely humiliated us.

I am not going to crucify Jimmy here but he has to prove himself very quickly in the next 5 games if the club can justify asking top SL prices again next season. He is on the verge of losing all credibility with fans who loved him as a player.
We may still win 4 more games or even win the £1m game but I am struggling to see us beating more than Fax now which will see us finish 6th.

I think Jimmy should be given his second year but I am bitterly disappointed in our woeful defence with Karl at the club and a seemingly lack of ability to get a team up for a game the way Wakey were today.

I will put these questions to everyone now:

Would you swap the two coaches from today’s match if you could?
Have you – like myself, re-evaluated the quality of many of our players out there today and may not look at them in as high a standard as we thought they were?
Assuming we stay down, will you now be unhappy to pay for a very expensive ST and rather choose your games wisely next year against all those teams who will lift their game and be a possible banana skin?

If the answer is yes to all three, Mr Green and Ferres have a big problem on their hands.

Time for a pint now. No, Time for a few pints and dream of Thrashing Salford, Widnes, Hull KR and Leigh and making this post completely pointless.

Just been watching the game back on SKY. Gaskell had a really nasty collision with the post for Wakefield's second try and then immediately went off. Looked bad.

Lowes does not deserve a second year, unless we get promoted (which after today is about as likely as Elvis recording a duet with Cilla Black).

Agreed. It came across much better when I said it to my brother on leaving the ground..... I think that sardonic doesn't work the same here.

Agree here. His job was to get us up at first time of asking and all signs point towards him failing (barring a miracle). I've questioned some tactics and squad selection but given it mainly a pass as "we might come good in the 8s" - well today we didn't. If we stay in the Championship, nothing this season or elsewhere in his coaching career says to me he can get us up next year. Lowes has 5 games to save his job IMO.

Today just goes to show the difference in class between the very worst of superleague, which we have been all season, and the top of the championship. The players you have, bar maybe a couple at best, are playing at that level for a reason. They are players who either got you relegated last season (below a Wakefield side that before this season kicked off we all thought was worse on paper than this one), have dropped down as they haven't been able to get a top flight club for a reason or have never played successfully at the higher level. It is easy to get carried away when you are beating inferior part-time sides most weeks but the reality is this country has few real quality players and not enough regular intensity below the elite level to prepare for the step up and most of the better players are already in the top flight. As a club Wakefield don't deserve to survive this year due to extracting the urine all season but the rules mean we likely will as there just isn't anybody good enough to replace us, including Leigh. That is a worry for the depth of RL in this country as much as anything else.

Under the current system the championship is a pointless 23 game preseason which offers no preparation for the middle 8's in terms of speed and intensity.

Very disappointing afternoon both on and off the pitch for me and my family.

We went into the game as slight underdogs and if I'm honest I suspected Wakefield might find a performance today. But I also expected us to come and really put a big effort in and make a real game of it. That unfortunately wasn't the case, the 1st half really was woeful and we made Wakefield look like SL champions. I can't remember anyone once putting T Smith under any sort kick pressure, he had an eternity of time with the ball in hand and he punished. Our kicking game was woeful without Gaskell pulling the strings and the penalty by Siejka that didn't find touch was just pure laziness.

Credit to Wakefield, they played us off the park today and showed we'll need to work a hell of a lot harder if we want to pick up the victories required against SL opposition. Praying that Gaskell isn't season ending otherwise sadly I fear the dream is over for 2015.

Re off the field disappointment was the racist chanting by a group of Wakefield fans, there is no place for that in our game. I expect there might be some repocussions for the club, particularly if it was picked up by the Sky microphones.

Also whilst I expect to hear the odd bit of swearing here and there at a rugby match it was OTT today. I do wish our fans would drop the 'you're all one family song' too as it really doesn't do us any favours. Even when I went for a HT slash I had to put up with some popped up numpty in a Wakefield shirt goading Bulls fans. I'll have to think twice about taking my family back to Belle Vue if this is accepted behaviour at their ground.

See I sort of agree with the sentiment, but I can't fully. If we'd played at our absolute best today and you'd put 40 past us I'd say fair cop to this but the Bulls didn't turn up - and similarly if you put 40 past Leigh next week. The difference between the best in the Championship and SL isn't just down to just one game, we can only really decide that in about 7 weeks time when the full system takes it course . Of course there is a huge chance you will be proved entirely correct.

Before todays game I hoped that Brian Smith could no longer weave his magic as he did with us in '96.

I also hoped Anthony Mullally wouldn't be as good as he was while playing on loan for us...

Didn't take long to have my (our) hopes and dreams shattered there did it?!

That was a definite case of Championship style rugby versus SL style - a very wide gap.

Brain Smith has his team playing with pace, power and commitment, half back pairings took us apart and Mullally repeatedly smashed though out line ...

There were some strange selection decisions today and it cost us dearly - we appear to be a one man team when we lose Gaskell - and we cannot afford to be at this stage...

Bitterly disappointing day - and I have to say - full credit to Brian Smith - his team were superb today and he definitely hasn't lost his touch.

I am already convinced we won't gain promotion - there is more work to do yet - and maybe some tough decisions to be made at the top!

And yes Bully Boxer - on top of all that - you are correct about some of the "banter"

It's still early days but you might well be right, best hope may be that by the end of 7 games one of the Championship clubs is up to speed to give a SL club a game. Bradford are much better than they showed today but whether their best is good enough remains to be seen.

Have to say that's by far the most sensible and accurate post by a Wakey fan that I've seen posted on our board

I suspect many of us had a dread fear that today's scenario might just unfold as it did.

Whilst we clung to the hope that it would all somehow 'come right' just at the right time (i.e today), we've seen too many sub-standard performances this season to have more than a forlorn hope that this would actually come to fruition. Squeaking home by one score against Batley or Dewsbury simply does lead to any other conclusion. And the constant mantra of 'it will be different when it matters' looks a bit hollow now.

The sad thing is that, should we end up in the Champ next year as looks likely, it us going to be even harder. We're still going to have the problem of a 23 game pre-season against mainly part-time teams with referees who let the games go at a snail pace. A few if our better players might well depart (although who would want them in today's showing?). Worse still, how on earth are Green and Ferres going sell us a season ticket offer at anywhere near this seasons prices?

Very depressing

Shocked to see that result today. I honestly thought that Wakefield, despite their recent acquisitions, were the vulnerable SL team in this competition. I think your result today probably sums up the chances of we Championship clubs, to gain promotion. Of course, I could be proved completely wrong when we play Salford tomorrow, and Wakefield next week, but I doubt it!

On the positive side, one of the Championship teams has to finish at least fifth, and then get a one-off crack at beating a SL team. Here's hoping!!

I've read a number of posts on here that mention Gaskell, being injured, being absent, etc, but not one that mentioned how badly he was at fault for Wakey's first 2 tries.

Sneaked

should we have asked your permission first

As one of many, many decent Wakefield fans Bully, can I offer an apology to you, your family and any other Bradford fans who feel the same.....I never heard the chants personally but am aware a small minority did do what you say....also, the OTT swearing is completely unnecessary and I've said my piece on our own fan page elsewhere about it...everyone can live with the odd slips here and there but its happening too much....

On the flip side I thought your fans were brilliant! Travelled in numbers, were very loud and vocal, even when the game had gone...exchanged some pleasant banter, observed the minutes silence impeccably and gave the very unfortunate Richie Owen a great applause too....a real shame for all you that your team never turned up...

Regarding the game....I just wonder whether people are under estimating us? I keep reading about s being this poor, bottom of the table side who conceded an average of 40+ points etc...etc....

The reality is, we are a completely different side to that team who's played all season long...

Lee Smith (3rd game back from union and getting better every game)

Bill Tupuo (3rd game for us and another who looks a strong player and improving every game)

Tim Smith (Has been looked after this last 4-6 weeks recovering from a bad knee injury he's carried all season, everyone knows how classy he is on his day)

Jacob Miller (Looked a completely different player since Brian Smith took over, oozing with confidence and one of the form halfbacks in Super League for the last month or two)

Nick Scruton (You all know how good he can be...for more than half the season though we had 4/5 of our main props out injured and he's practically led the pack on his own)

Michael Sio (Another new addition and another who improves with every game...best player on the park at Salford last week and again quality)

Scott Anderson (Quality on his day but missed over half of the season injured, but because of that will be fresher than most at this time of the season)

Matty Ashurst (Missed about three quarters of the season through injury...just got back in the side and had a little run of games, decent backrower though)

Jon Molloy (This the real big surprise as he's only ever been a fringe player for the last couple of seasons, but one who Brian Smith has clearly taken a liking to....has hardly played up to recent weeks but is keeping Lauititi out of the side so must be doing something right)

Mickael Simon (Been our best forward all year...runs very hard and takes some putting down)

Anthony Mullally (A player you should know all about...did to you today exactly what he did to Salford last week...immensely strong and a quality signing for Leeds...suppose we're fortunate to have such a quality player for these mid 8's)

Pita Godinet (Another who's been in and out through injuries but another who is absolute quality on his day)


We've got a great coach in Brian Smith and since he took over we have been in a 7-8 week pre-season mode....signing new players looking after players who have carried knocks, been injured etc....trying out new combinations and aiming to hit the ground running for these 8's....we should have beaten Salford last week without any shadow of a doubt...


I hope Bradford can pick themselves up from today and somehow get the belief back and challenge for a spot back in the top flight, a place I feel Bradford should be....good luck for the rest of the 8's!

No you should have named him in 19 man squad

. End of day he wasn't difference between teams anyway.

Thank you upthecats and I don't doubt that the supporters who I'm referring to are very much in the minority of your supporter base. I enjoy a bit of banter among fans as much as anyone but I felt it went beyond banter at times today.

Anyway I've said my piece and I wish the Wildcats well for the rest of the 8's. This journey was always going to be a rollercoaster, I just hope we have a few more highs yet to come and who knows we might yet face each other again this season.

Glad it wasn't just me. He was only on the pitch 9 minutes and IMO was directly responsible for both tries conceded in that time. His attacking threat is undeniable though and it was a shame he didn't have a chance to make amends for his mistakes.

Hope his injury isn't as bad as suggested as I rate him highly.

He did ok when he finally came on, not that I'd expect you to have noticed him, with that embarrassment served up by your lot, you'd probably have left the ground already