So are we expecting a good performance this Sunday? The team did look a lot happier at Dewsbury and had more idea in attack than they’d shown in weeks. I’m hopeful we’ll see evidence of further progress versus Workington. They’ve won only one league game this season so we should run out winners by a fair margin.

If we still look like a dispirited bunch with no idea then I’ll be seriously worried.

Well, as the handover has been happening all week (bloody strange idea if you ask me, I mean what's needed to be handed over in this sort of role?) so it will likely have been the same sort of training set up as the Dewsbury game ie Diskin and Walker taking the majority of the training with the players.

I would hope for a similar result to the Dewsbury game as well. Certainly in terms of score line

Think Diskin will go same again with youngsters, maybe 1 or 2 more getting an opportunity. I know Ross said Kavanagh & Sidlow could be back for Sunday, but Sidlow was in a pot still last week.

That said we have a massive game against London next week (A loss will see us 6 points behind them, which would in all likelihood condemn us to third) Kavanagh and Sidlow will improve our side, and i'd like to see them both in for that game, but need to get the fitness levels up after long term injuries. So do we bring them back for Wokringotn to get their fitness up for crunch game against London, or do we keep faith with the ones who did so well at Dewsbury? Tricky one.

If you play blokes who aren't ready, you risk having them out for even longer. 'Ready' might be 90%, but if he was in a pot last week I can't see him being anything like 'ready'.

IF Sidlow and Kavanagh are fit for Sunday then I think playing them is a must as we need our first teamers fit and ready to go.

However, I've a little more faith in Diskin as coach than I had in Lowes simply because of the way he presents himself to the media and the things he says when talking to them.

It will be hard to tell.

Much as this league is more competitive than it has been for some years Workington are very much not on the list. Oldham are doing well and Swinton's results belie their performances. Worky are some distance behind the teams around them for me.

Frankly, even paggering them is no real indicator.

No disrespect to wastrel teams intended.

I'm going for a result that neither satisfies nor causes too much upset. A result that sort of says Meh. 44-10.

I might as well go all in on this admitting to being a nerd lark. These are the ranges of possible league positions as they may stand on Monday, after this weekend's games. Grey for where they are, green for where they could rise to and red for where they might fall to.



The numbers really refer to level on league points with the team actually in that position. It doesn't take into account points difference. It's a few thousand league tables as it is. Doing points difference poorly would mean tens of millions. So bugger it.

edit: altered the bit in bold for a bit more clarity about what this represents. Early morning Friday stats do not make for ease of reading.

You could do it live on match days as the scores change.

Work in progress

You'd like to think they'll want to send Jimmy off / impress a new coach with a stonking win

... which probably means we'll scrape a win with a controversial last minute try!

Seriously, though we ought to aiming to nil Workington on Sunday. They are clearly the worst team in the League, and we ought to be looking to shut them out completely. If we can score a hatful, so much the better - but I'd love to see a flawless defensive performance to go into the next run of (much harder) games.

I'd sooner see 28-0 than 52-24

I'd expect Jarrod to be looking particularly hard to feature on the scoreboard....

Go with the same or similar team vs Dewsbury. Get the young lads playing and getting some experience.

Oakes and Ryan to feature again for me. Any more than can step up?

Think its pretty much guaranteed Sammut will get on score board.

If it's 62-1 he will deserve his firm handshake.

King of the useless one pointers after that the other week – taking over the crown from Offiah when he scored for Salford when we beat them 52-1. A memorable day as we were top of Super League and Leeds were bottom.

4 changes to the squad.

ADAM Sidlow and Danny Williams have both been included in the squad for this weekend’s game versus Workington Town.

Williams has not featured in 2016 after injuring his hand at the beginning of the year, whilst Sidlow played the opening rounds until breaking his hand against Leigh Centurions in February.

The winger and the prop replace Bradford Academy graduates Ethan Ryan and Joe Lumb, whilst Kurt Haggerty returns to the squad and replaces Under 19s centre Ross Oakes.

The fourth and final change for this Sunday’s 19-man squad sees Oscar Thomas replace Lee Gaskell, who picked up a knock after the Dewsbury Rams contest.

Alex Mellor, Jay Pitts, Steve Crossley, Tom Olbison, Adam O’Brien, Omari Caro, Adrian Purtell, Oscar Thomas, Kris Welham, Paul Clough, Adam Sidlow, Kurt Haggerty, Jonny Campbell, Dan Fleming, James Clare, Mitch Clark, Dale Ferguson, Danny Williams, Danny Addy

Hopefully Gaskell is only a knock as we need him for next week IMO

You all know that Workington are guaranteed to score first, so WTF are you even mentioning clean sheets??

Kudos to vbfg (or "veg", as my autocorrect endearingly calls him, for quite the best info graphic of recent times. Just for one thing, I had no clue we can't now rise above 3rd whatever we do. That is a shocking and appalling fact. I'd blithely assumed if we go on a win of runs, we could maybe still finish top. So thanks for shattering my illusions.

You all know that Workington are guaranteed to score first, so WTF are you even mentioning clean sheets??

Kudos to vbfg (or "veg", as my autocorrect endearingly calls him), for quite the best info graphic of recent times. Just for one thing, I had no clue we can't now rise above 3rd whatever we do. That is a shocking and appalling fact. I'd blithely assumed if we go on a win of runs, we could maybe still finish top. So thanks for shattering my illusions.

That's what I'm here for. That's what I'm here for.

(Though it means we cannot rise above 3rd *this weekend*. Top is far from impossible).

If you're gonna rest Gaskell, this is the game to do it.

Unless he plays Addy as a 9 though, that squad means O'Brien is pointlessly doing 80 minutes again.

I won't be expecting us to rack up a boat load of points if we've no halfback at all.

I'm more interested in our overall performance. With all respect we should still be beating Workington even if we have an off day. We need to stop leaking points so as long as we look good in defence and not useless in attack I'll be happy that we're starting to kick on again.

I may have been hopelessly naive but I assumed that Diskin taking over would pretty much guarantee that Lumb, Oakes and Ryan (and possibly more of the youngsters) would have been in the squad

Looks like he's given Jimmy once last chance to pick the squad



I'd honestly forgotten Danny Williams - it will be good to see him back... a steady and dependable player

I'd imagine that we'll line up along the lines of

FB: Clare
RW: Carp
RC: Welham
LC: Campbell
LW: Williams
SO: Purtlell
SH: Thomas
PR: Sidlow
HK: O'Brien
PR: Clough
SR: Olbison
SR: Pitts
LF: Addy

Subs: Ferguson, Crossley, Haggerty, Clark with Mellor and Flemming on standby to replace Haggerty and Sidlow should they fail fitness tests

It's a shame to for the young lads to all miss out as I don't think they looked out of place against Dewsbury, however their inclusion there might have sparked up some extra effort from the first teamers in training

Gaskell subbed himself towards the end of the Dewsbury game after pulling up with what looked like a muscle strain somewhere in his leg. So probably more injured than rested. Just gives a chance to one of our other half back options.....oh wait....

FWIW Sammut is also not in Workingtons 19man squad. I would also have kept a couple of the younger lads in for this one, not sure what Oakes did wrong to lose his place in the squad.