The thing what annoys me about Tomkins is there's far to many errors in his game. Silly petty dissent, hands in the play the ball, and lying on penalties are his habits. If he curbed the penalties he'd be more valuable to us.

That's the Wigan element, his back chat the other week was criminal.

I for one will be pleased to see the beast back down the lane.

Can't condone what he did but it's got nothing to do with me. All I know is he was a fans favourite all the time he was here,abs technically still is "our player". Whether he plays for us again remains to be seen.

I think since the incident he has conducted himself professionally as well.

Two ambitious teams going hard at what may be the first "must win" of the season for both.

With that in mind....... Cas by 28



See you all tomorrow, enjoy the game and the atmosphere

Nice one Dave. Wish I was there but will be listening on the radio from Gran Canaria. Good luck to both teams, but hoping for a Salford win in the last minute from a dodgy decision.

Amazing that Flat Stanley & MR are in agreement on anything least of all re Evalds/GOB/Tomkins. The plan - until it is ditched - if ever - is to use GOB as a 3rd pivot in an effort to get the ball to the wings (S`au permitting) - Evalds is not a pivot - he`s a finisher and a good `un too.

Personally - if I had to choose between Evalds & Tomkins it would be Niall as he could distribute from dummy half like Stef did last night for Warrington & also still be a threat to the oppo with his speed of thought when backing up.

I'm channelling the hate towards the people that keep changing the fixtures so Stan and his odd beliefs are safe for now



I asked this a few weeks ago but wonder how effective Evalds would be at hooker, Peter Edwards came as a class full back and then converted into an equally good hooker, Evalds is good tackler, can distribute the ball and he has more than enough pace to scoots from the PTB.

To be honest its nice to have the option. GOB is playing well at 3rd pivot, however if we were trailing with twenty minutes to go and we were lacking that piece of individual spark going forward that's when the change should happen. Evalds to Fullback then O'Brien to 9,6 or 7. Its a great option to have which is unfortunate for Niall, but competition for places is a healthy headache. Tomkins's discipline must improve, and until then i'd have Evalds and Three forwards on our bench.

I said this on another thread post Warrington game........

"there's no one more than me who wants to see Niall in the starting 17, as we know what he's capable of.
But in these games playing against big mobile packs can we afford to keep shoe horning him and Tompkins into the side.
The forwards looked dead on their feet in the last twenty and having that extra interchange would've helped that.
Unfortunately with Jones playing in the pack we don't have the luxury of bringing Niall on and moving someone from the back line into the pack, just my thoughts."

Now Lui has gone off we have the pleasure of Lee at half back....

Proper resilience this team has now. Very very impressed with them. Not been today but Carney getting 2 must have stuck in their craw just a little

Well done Salford. The better team clearly on the day. I did feel we were going to snatch it near the end but when you intercepted the ball then went on to score again not long after I knew that was it. Decent ish following too. Made some good noise.

Brilliant result.

With 5 games now that are all winnable that gives the team confidence to go for it.

I'd settle for 3 or 4 wins out of 5.

Odds on we'll be HKR's first scalp next week then?

Well played Salford much the better side today. Cas game plan was simple and predictable and we were no match for your enthusiasm and you've defo tightened up in defense. Good game

highlights www.skysports.com/watch/video/sp ... 32-salford

highlights www.skysports.com/watch/video/sp ... 32-salford

Why way Carney marched for 10 and Massey not? Pretty obvious there that Bentham bottled it.

Good game, won by the best team. My main thoughts:
1. Dobson is still a class act. His kicking game was spot all every time and he organised the attack well on our line.
2. The first time I have said this - awful in-game decision from Powell. When we lost Dorn to injury the two options were to either put Hampshire to full-back and use Milner as a make-shift half, or put Monaghan to full-back, shift Crooks onto the wing and use McMeekan as a centre. Powell decided to put Milner onto the wing - despite having none of the attributes of a winger! Dobson took about two minutes to notice and isolate Milner, catching his completely out of position numerous times.
3. Justin Carney is always going to provide entertainment. Sin-binned in the first minute, giving penalties away whilst in possession and dropping the ball after the tackle. However, he can certainly find his way to the line given the opportunity. I was shocked he wasn't once targeted with a high ball - imagine the pressure the fans would have put him under as the ball came down, particularly with his back to the Wheldon Road End in the second half! I wish he was still in our colours, but unfortunately our players will not accept him as part of the group so he has no future at Cas. You should get him signed up ASAP, though I hear we have agreed a deal with Wigan as of next year.
4. Gareth O'Brien is a fantastic kicker. Those kind of conversions are worth their weight in gold.
5. Tommy Lee was better than I expected him to be.
6. From our point of view, Hamsphire can toddle back to Wigan. I saw nothing to suggest he has the potential to be a first-choice SL half back.

Overall, the result reflected the game. We need our injured players back ASAP (Roberts in particular) as we are much weaker without them.

Seems like a fair assessment to me. Re the injuries that your team are suffering. We had more than our fair share last year, and it refreshing to have a virtually full squad to pick from. It does mean, however, that we have some damned good players sitting on the sidelines. Just great that two of the 'lesser' teams are mixing it with the best.

I'm beginning to think that GOB is looking like our best buy of the off season so far. I thought he was good last year but his form this season so far is very impressive. A long time since we went to Cas and won by so many points. It really looks like Watson is fashioning some real consistency into the group, even when we've lost we've still give it our all, and that's all us fans really want to see. If Lui is missing for a few weeks I can see Evalds getting his chance with GOB moving into the halves with Dobson. Not a bad replacement eh?

No! O'Brien has been a revelation at full back so why move him? Evalds arrived as a half back so let's play him there. He is one of the best support players I have seen of late so give him am opportunity.

Great away day and delighted to come away with the win but my gosh didn't we made it hard for ourselves yet again.

There were so heroic efforts from some of our usual outstanding performers this year such as Josh Jones, Gareth O'Brian, Tommy Lee, Craig Kopzcak, Ben Murdoch-Masila, Justin Carney, Mark Flanagan, Junior Sau and Josh Griffin.

But having said that Logan Tomkins and Phil Joesph were horrendous and to be quite frank are championship standard and should subsequently be dropped next week for Hull KR away.

Will Matty Wilkinson get the call up next week? Evalds at full back and move O'Brian into scrum half?

Quote ="redmanc"highlights www.skysports.com/watch/video/sp ... 32-salford'" That last try is interesting. At the game I thought Carney had picked it up to run it under the posts to rub salt into the wounds. Did he actually get downward pressure, looks like he just picked it up to me! Obviously made no difference, but it looked odd when I saw it live and still doesn't look right!

Quote ="redmanc"highlights www.skysports.com/watch/video/sp ... 32-salford'" That last try is interesting. At the game I thought Carney had picked it up to run it under the posts to rub salt into the wounds. Did he actually get downward pressure, looks like he just picked it up to me! Obviously made no difference, but it looked odd when I saw it live and still doesn't look right!

With all respect, GOB is a HB playing well at FB. Mainly due to him being played as an extra HB. Evalds is a better FB than HB at this stage of his career so I can see him getting the nod at FB if GOB moves in for Lui. Of course you may be right in that Watson will stick Evalds at HB, but I seriously doubt he will do it. Evalds got Young player of the year at FB last season, it would be mad to throw him in the halves especially after having so little game time. With little game time under his belt, a run out at FB may be just what he needs.

Don't think massey did anything , according to your coach it was Webster who slapped carney, but I did think at the time how the hell can only carney go for that....in typical cas fashion, we fail to score with a man extra and actually conceded 2 points. That said, salford were far better today and well worth the win.