I'd love to carry on picking the bones of Saturday's embarrassing defeat but there are other things to think about.

Tough tough game this week and each game now becomes more important than the last.

I'm not sure we are out of it if we lose but I definitely need to see an improved performance. Especially in defence.

I think with the right tactics and selection we can get a result but we have to be at 100% and have learned from the first half on Saturday.

I've noticed the Rugby League Banter page on Facebook seem desparate to get Rangi Chase banned for making contact with an official. Personally i don't think there is anything in it and purely accidental. The in goal judge looked to laugh about it so a ban seems unlikely and totally unfair. That said I'll take anything that helps us out so a 1 match ban would be a great boost.

I expect Salford to be slightly better than Wakefield. Should Gaskell Neilson and Mullaney be fit then I expect us to lose but the margin be less. The players, hopefully, will want to show they can improve.

As long as Leigh lose to the 4 SL teams like we will probably do all we have to do is beat Leigh at their place and everything else is irrelevant. We should beat Fax and Leigh will also beat Fax and Sheff - so all square between us there.
The problem comes if Leigh beat one SL team but I expect Widnes to win.
My concern is they still have Wakey to play and I think they could just beat them. That would mean if we beat Leigh it all comes down to points difference who gets into the £1m game. So out of a bunch of 30 games (23 + 7) there is probably only the next Leigh Vs Bulls game that really matters if we are aiming for that one off game at the end.
As Jimmy says. It isn't the end of the world when we lose because either Leigh or us were always going to be in that £1m game and the rest of the season was just a filler between February and September.
Now, it doesn't seem all that bad now - does it?

We may, says he, ever the optimist, .....now get the SL sides treating these games a little less like 'cup finals' and a bit more like easy games against second tier opposition, which naturally they'll feel they will win in a canter.......

We have - generally - performed better at home this season....

Damage limitation is all we can really hope for I feel.

The danger is the coach and players start thinking that way too. Don't take the next two games seriously and we end up going into the Leigh game undercooked. And even if we beat Leigh to 5th spot, what chance would we have in the final game if we had been repeatedly hammered by SL teams?

Realistically, I'm struggling to see how we can win this game. The Salford team on paper is much stronger than ours and if we start like we did against Wakefield the score-line will be even worse. If Nielsen and Mullaney are in then it might give the team a lift, but I don't think it will be enough. That said, I still expect a better performance from us this weekend. We underperformed massively against Wakey but we are better than what we showed in that game.

I think the realistic aim now has to be fifth place. If we beat Leigh and Halifax, having already beaten Sheffield, it should enough for fifth, assuming none of Halifax, Sheffield or Leigh take a SL scalp. With this in mind, if Gaskell isn't 100% this weekend, I wouldn't risk him.

If this game was against Wakefield then I could see a way to win it: just come out pumped up and take it to them, get the pack on top and never give them an inch. A bit like they did against our powder-puff pathetic capitulation at the weekend.

Against Salford, it is much harder. I suppose the thing in our favour is that, like us, you never quite know which Salford will be turning up, whereas Wakefield have been given a big injection of structure, confidence and desire by our old boy Brian Smith. If bad Salford turn up then we have a chance to beat them IF it's a week where we turn up, but that is some "if". But if good Salford turn up, then they are considerably better than Wakey and will beat us, and if we play bad Bradford versus good Salford then it would be a cricket score.

I presume that our performance will be better, (it can't be as bad again and there isn't a "worse"icon_wink.gif so if Salford aren't at the top of their game, I expect we will lose by around 18. A win would be an astonishing turnaround, but I don't see it. And without Gaskell it is truly Mission Impossible. We had zero belief against Wakey, and getting mullered that way and looking a shambolic bunch of headless chickens on national TV won't have helped the confidence any.

Don't worry it is just another day at the office for Jimmy. But will it be a good day or a bad day?

I expect a much better performance on Sunday. Strangely enough I take confidence from how Halifax have performed against both super league teams who are imo better than trinity.
The team know they let us and themselves down on Saturday and will be keen to make amends this Sunday. Keep the faith!

With Salford winning big and us losing big I feel helps us in a strange way. Salford could naturally see this as an easy day at the office and understandably.... Us on the other hand surely can't perform that bad 2 weeks in a row!

I will go for us by 4 points... It will go to the wire!

Think we'll come out aggressive and pumped up, but i think Salford's quality will come through towards the end with them winning by around 14 with us being competitive for 65 minutes.

I think Leigh could also beat Wakey on Saturday. Difficult side to beat at home are Leigh.

If Leigh do beat Wakey that makes our loss to Wakefield even more crucial and we'll have to beat an SL side. Personally think we have to do this before the million pound match to earn promotion.

Fortunately for us, Leigh did peak too soon in the season, as many of us kept saying. Now, their form is getting worse, and getting beat will be denting their confidence. They have lost the belief in their own invincibility.

Wakey are going in the opposite direction thanks to Brian Smith and I don't see them having any trouble winning at Leigh, something which just a few weeks ago I wouldn't have believed. Leigh's chance is the same as our chance was - namely get really into their faces early doors, get stuck in, get into their faces and heads and make them doubt themselves. Not impersonate the doormen at the Hilton.

Wouldn't say Leigh are going backwards just yet, or Wakefield are definitely on the up. As wofeul as we were on Saturday and as good Wakey were, they still conceded 3 tries. That was with no Gaskell, Mullaney and bloody Harry Siejka at 7. If Leigh come out of the blocks quickly they will score points. One result could change everything. If Leigh win on Saturday, then suddenly the pressure is back on Wakey and big time on us. If Wakey win convincingly though and we lose to Salford, i think that could be it for the championship clubs. Psychologically i don't think they will feel they can beat an Sl team when it comes to the million pound match.

That is the only hope, imo.

Are they going to feel the pressure is off and just come and enjoy themselves - or even better go back to the infighting which has blighted their whole season? Let's hope the doctor tries to impose some more unwanted solutions and takes their minds off the game.....

I don't think Leigh are necessarily going backwards, but I do feel the last two games have been a bit of reality check for them. They've had a brilliant campaign in the league this season and naturally, a team looks better when they're scoring 60 points every week. Some of their fans have gone into the Super 8s believing that top 3 is very achievable and that top 5 is a certainty. It's not really worked out that way. They were comfortably beating Hull KR and poor tactics cost them, though Rovers were much improved in the second half. I didn't watch the Salford v Leigh match, but I imagine it played out similar to our match against Wakefield; the score-lines were almost identical.

It's the same for ourselves. We looked good in the Sheffield match and I went into the Wakefield match thinking we could get a result. A win against Wakefield and I think top 3 could have been possible. But we just didn't turn up on the day. Their ruck speed and their aggression in the pack killed us in the first 10 minutes, and we gave Tim Smith far too much time on the ball. Whether that was down to poor tactics, or whether we were shell-shocked from the way Wakefield started, I don't know. If there was one thing we couldn't handle, it was the speed at which Wakefield were playing. The step up in ruck speed and energy compared to the first 23 rounds of the season was evident, and we were 30-0 down before we knew what was happening.

Against Salford, our only hope is that they go into the game over-confident and relaxed, and that we come out the blocks fired up, which I think we will. I think whatever happens, Salford will ultimately have too much quality and will run away with the game in the last 20 minutes or so, like Hull KR did to us in the Challenge Cup. With Leigh being at home against Wakefield, they might be able to sneak a result. If they do, and we lose to Salford, our chances are looking grim.

I finally made myself watch the first half again, and this just confirms my impression that it was nothing much to do with any great Wakey ruck speed at all. Wakey played good but not great, the overwhelmingly biggest issue was that we came out for whatever reason not ready to do the work. They played with urgency and determination, but we stood about. Our defence has developed into a pretty good unit in the second half of the regular season for the most part, but against Wakey, all that was forgotten and critically we showed no great desire to get the man halted and on the ground. I am talking about our pack. It may as well not have been on the field.

It was certainly a case of the Bulls being slow, lazy, lethargic and disorganised. We allowed them to play. We should have been in their faces and aggressive and we simply weren't. Our pack was simply overrun, and it shouldn't have been, but if you won't make the effort to muscle up and hit them, instead stand back and watch, then you'll see exactly what we saw. Against anybody.

Do the same as me and watch it again. It looks as if we were playing to a new rule not to get within 20 metres of Tim Smith. It is dire.

I simply don't understand how we could have descended to that mode.

Leigh have lost their opening two games but they have hardly laid down and died, or 'peaked too soon'. They should have beaten Rovers were it not for some dumb plays in their own 20 and some dumb props conceding back to back penalties.
Then against Salford they had at least 3 tries disallowed that could very well have been awarded had a video ref been available. The final scoreline at Salford flattered the home side somewhat imo.

Rowley will get his side fired up on Saturday and they will have a good go. I think a lot swings on what Wakefield side turns up - if they can keep their completion rate and error count at the same levels they were against us then it may well be too much for Leigh again, but a few quick Leigh scores could put the cat well and truly amongst the pigeons.

I am really torn as to who I want to win that game on Saturday. Obviously for our own personal chances of promotion, we need Wakey to win. But part of me would also like to see a championship side gain promotion this year at Wakefield's expense, and if it's not us then I'd like Leigh to get a shot in SL.

The annoying thing about Saturday is I still believe we have a very handy team that are capable of beating a lower SL team.
I also don't see Wakey as a good team. I go through their players and there are many that I wouldn't be impressed if we had signed them. Would we have been whooping with joy if we had signed Lee Smith?

No, we are not a bad team but we are a team who are playing very poor rugby and have been for most of the season apart from the occasional 20 minutes which has papered over the cracks.
I would still go back to Wakey in that £1m game - with a full team and feel that we do have a real chance if Jimmy could do what he is paid to do - Bloody get all 17 players up for it - just for once!

I haven't seen much of your boys this season, so I wont comment on anything Bradford. From a Salford point of view, we're pretty strong at the moment having pretty much a full strength squad to choose from for the first time in the entire season. Importantly, since Sheens came in to help out Watson and Gleeson and Harris disappeared, the team's belief and comradery returned. We were inconsistent for most of the season, not helped by injuries and lengthy suspensions to key players. Our destruction of Leigh was primarily down to dominating their pack, tiring them out, and exploiting weak defensive structure, especially out wide. Chase masterminded pretty much everything, with Dobson performing the right hand man work very well. How you handle Chase will be key to how well you perform. Leigh and Wakefield had no answer on that score. I don't think Salford will take you guys lightly for the reason that our last two fixtures are away to SL opposition, and it would be nice for us to have a buffer rather than rely on getting results away to SL opposition.

it's still one game though, and any game is winnable on the day. Could be interesting.

Looking back at the match I am sure our forwards will see that they were beaten by a more convincing pack. They should be angry with themselves that they were shown up as much less than their opponents. We have seen SL sides starting incredibly quick this season and got results from it. The pack are going to have to be like enforcers, get respected and force them to doubt.

Defensively we have to be quicker and switched on for the full eighty. It comes down to each player getting fired up and believing in themselves as quality athletes. This is not a poor team just a team that has to step up mentally.

Chase is terrific give him too much space and it will difficult. Clearly I am one of the outsiders who prefer Seika and Henry....

We'll play better but still get well beaten. I think our pack is lacking power. We're two decent props and two decent backrowers short of SL standard.

While Sidlow and Clough are ok neither Crossley or Lauaki are fit enough or mobile enough. Ferguson is good enough in the backrow. Pitts is ok and tackles like a demon but is a bit lighweight. Olbison has improved a lot but looked outgunned versus Wakefield - too small.

Addy for me is not SL quality. He's too small and doesn't hit hard enough in defence for backrow. He has good core skills but isn't quick enough for halfback. He would've been a decent loose forward in the 1970s or 80s.

Sidlows been poor most of the year in my view. Lots of minutes, little impact. Cough was awful on Saturday but has been our best prop.

I don't understand the signing of Crossley at all.

Great post that Nothus.