....walked up to a microphone, and belted out [i Something Better Change[/i

Forty two years on, and the words have never been so apt, regarding our club.

Bar Moran and Middleton's investment, we stink to high heaven. We lurch from apathy, to [ijobs for the boys[/i, to just plain muppetry.

Apathy.
Price. Seriously. WTF is he trying to do?. In March, we took an (admittedly depleted) Hull side to the cleaners, at their ground. Risks taken, open rugby, and good old fashioned entertainment. Since then, he's put a tourniquet on ANY expansive rugby. He's literally trying to bore the opposition, and us fans, into submission.
All we have, attacking wise, is a non functioning scrum half, kicking to a one trick pony centre, as our sole attacking option. That's his game plan, in a nutshell.
Yes, the Challenge Cup was a PHENOMENAL achievement on the day (thanks to the bokklers), but that shouldn't make him untouchable.
See Van Gaal and Conte with recent FA Cup winning sides. Both sacked within days. Let's face it. We're going only one direction with him, and that's down. Let's cut our losses, before he can ruin Widdop.

Which brings me to [ijobs for the boys[/i, and Briers. Again, WTF does he do? Get rid. Despite "legendary status", we don't owe the fella a living. But hold on, were going to do the same AGAIN, with Westwood. We need a totally new coaching set up, asap

Which brings me to muppetry
We'll, where do we start.
Patton. Not good enough, and on occasions, total 5h1te, tonight being a typical example
J. Clarke. The dictionary definition of average, but a very expensive one.
King. What does he do, bar catch the odd Patton bomb.

Funnily enough, going back to the thread title, 2 more Stranglers titles of the time were [iNo More Heroes[/i, and [i(get a) GRIP[/i.

YES Moran and Middleton. Heed the words of M. Burnel, or 2020 will be a disaster, with emptying stands

Absolutely spot on but stand by for the happy clappers to rip you. It’s time to take the blinkers off and look around, I mentioned K F in another thread.

I agree Price to go for me. J Clark is awful...really awful and Livett sidelined who is a far better player. This is the worst 'attacking' wire side I have seen in 35 years. I love Simon Moran but he needs to be ruthless or we will continue to be a laughing stock. Coach doesn't count on the cap get THE BEST signed.

Oh, the happy clappers!
Shall we play happy clappers bingo game?

We won the cup
Patton was only third choice half
You're just a Patton hater (I'm not)
God you're cheerful.
....there's 4 corners

You can't sack him after winning the cup
We've missed crucial players
He's earned another year
SBW (that makes me ill) will shake em up
Briers is a legend, how dare you
J.Clark does a lot of unseen work
King is quality (he ain't)

FULL HOUSE

I walked past him and Price sharing a laugh coming out of the ground after our first Salford defeat, which was embarrassing.

Without Moran we'd be nowhere and I'm sure he's ruthless with any under-performers in his business. Hopefully he adopts the same mentality with Price.

Unfortunately the board isn’t as ruthless with coaches as they are with players coming towards the end of their contact.

Price will be here next season.

Smith was a busted flush for years before the board acted.

Yes indeed, the fans will just walk on by...

It appears that they did last night

Pedant mode on.

Surely it was Hugh Cornwell not Jean Jacques Burnel.

Pedant mode off.

Was that the lowest league crowd ever at the HJ ?
Wouldn't imagine KF and SM laughing at that

Would i like a new coach - Yes
Will i be calling for Price's head - No

Had we lost the cup final then we would have a case... But you cant sack a man who has just delivered a trophy.

Having said that, i dont see anything other than more lacklustre displays next season.... But he has earnt the right to be the coach at the start of next season.... like it or not.

Have we actually had a cup game with a lower crowd than that at the HJ?

Talking heads and road to nowhere would be more apt

No, JJ sang that one.

Jean Jacques and Hugh were both vocalists with the Stranglers, the former sang Something Better Change, Five Minutes, and Go Buddy Go! There's a video from '77 showing JJ singing at the Hope & Anchor on youtube.

I agree. Price has earned the right to put this right. We are a still a lot further ahead (and a trophy richer) than the club he joined. But put it right he must.

I disagree strongly with the criticism of Toby King. He is a very good defensive centre and came up with another trysaver last night (after three in the cup final). Do either of our centres get enough decent ball to work with? Absolutely not.

Therein lies the problem. I think centre and I think of attack not defence. Genuinely what/when were these trysavers at Wembley? Watched it umpteen times and don't recall them. Put him in the second row I think he'd do better there.

Continuing the musical theme, anyone know the artist and title of the tune played at half time. slightly rappy, with a funky sound.

If we are questioning coaches. What does Henderson do exactly? It is difficult to criticise the backs too much when our attacking structure and game plan are so dire. Having said that King is part of the general problem of lack of pace in the team. Lack of pace has been a problem for years and that hasn’t been addressed. Look at Mamo yesterday. He’s not the greatest player to walk the earth but he’s bar far the quickest player in the squad and his pace at least gave Cas something to worry about.

It’s difficult with Patten but Price has made a mistake. He’s nowhere near good enough and yesterday was probably his worst performance. Dean probably should have been given a try instead of Smith. He’s probably too young and raw but maybe he could have been ok with a few games under his belt.

I agree I think Toby King is a decent centre and gets some unfair criticism on here, he’s scored the same amount of tries as Goodwin and provided a lot more assists then Bryson has this season, he probably defends better than him also. There has been bigger issues to deal with other than singling out specific players, when the vast majority of the squad has underperformed recently.

The only player I have an issue with is Patton he shouldn’t be anywhere near a team challenging for a championship and thankfully that is getting sorted next season with Widdop. He’s had enough chances now and it’s the right time for the club to let him explore other avenues, RU awaits.

Patton now being linked with Sale Sharks!!

To be fair Goodwin was poor at the start before his future was sorted. It’s all well and good quoting tries scored and assists. I’d like to see the m made, breaks, tackle bust stats!!

Plus when your only tactic is hoof it to King on the last tackle he’s bound to score the odd try!

You really don’t like people daring to hold a different opinion from yours do you?
I would let Price go based on the second half of the season, however I would question LG’s criticism of Briers on the basis of how does he know what he does or doesn’t do?
So where does that leave me on your happy clapper scale?

Go on then, I'll take a wild stab in the dark at Briers' input the team, since 2013

a) coaching attacking plays
b) inputting his thoughts to Patton (well that worked well), Brown, Austin, Dean, and in the past O'Brien, Gidley, Myler etc.since his retirement
c) giving his pearls of wisdom from the touchline, while the attackmeister sits in in his crow's nest.

I await your thoughts on Briers' role in the last 6 seasons, CH.

Briers coaching achievements don't match the assistants at Leeds or Wigan, do they? Time for him to move on, I think. Probably best for all concerned. We don't owe the fella a living

I don’t get this point, he’s not taken us ‘further ahead’, just to another GF loss. The only way we can go further ahead is to WIN the damn thing. Til then we’re treading water winning the cup which we already won 3 times under Smith.