It's deja vu all over again. The same happened with Gaz O'Brian. Most Wire fans really hoped Gaz would take himself to another level and possibly be our star halfback for the next 10 years but sadly he didn't.
We are seeing the same with Patton. Most fans are desperate for him to succeed (including myself) but the evidence so far does not support these hopes. He has had a decent run in his favoured position in a team doing reasonably well and has not risen to the challenge. Time for Plan B

What a load of old pony.
No-one is blaming Patton for Friday's defeat, and no-one is "slutting" the lad off. We can see that, despite his best efforts, he ain't the answer.
....and he's not going to win Golden Boot, anytime soon

i'm not sure i can watch the game back, no do i really want to but i had a slight chuckle to myself near the end of the game where patton gave tasi the bollocking of his life for something, might have got in his way as he was running aimlessly. The irony involved in that.

Who has blamed DP for Fridays or any other defeat?

I'm still waiting to be told what Pattons strengths are; elusiveness, pace, long kicking game, short kicking game, organisational skills, game management, excellently timed passes, support play, defence? It's a serious question.

He can bang a tub and lead a sing song.

Ah, but so can Phil Collins, Karen Carpenter, Dave Clark and Don Henley. They're also not scrum halves for a leading Super League club, with aspirations of winning stuff

The fact that 5 years since his debut and a run of games in the side (can't use that argument anymore), a good chunk if not the majority of Wire supporters STILL think he is not good enough tells you all you need to know. This opinion seems to be shared by the club by virtue of the fact we have already signed a world class replacement for 2020.

Reckon Phil Collins could of played hooker in his day

He liked an Easy Lover

Someone probably said that about Tommy Makinson once

Anyone that saw him play junior level would have saw how he could kick in play so effectively, both long and short. The number of 40/20’s he kicked was a huge asset to those teams. But as a rule, we don’t kick the ball unless it’s the last tackle.

I can only assume that is consciously, led by the coaches. But why? If you kick on 3rd or 4th you’re missing out on 1 or 2 10 meter carries at best, but are far more likely to kick into space.

Waiting for the last to kick down the throat of a winger who makes that 20 meters back on the first play is a false economy.

If you’re not dominant when carrying away from our line, let him kick it, try for a 40/20, at worst you pin the fullback in the corner on his own and start the set with a dominant tackle.

It has to be the decision of the coaches, as we don’t ever kick early. We often take another ineffective hit up, challenging nobody, to lump a kick in the air.

I’m not saying Patton is the answer, but we’ve seen he can kick, whether he’s being encouraged to or not is a question worth asking.

I see someone else shares my logic about kicking early sometimes ...kick when the full back & wingers haven't dropped back & have more chance of big yards from the kick. Do that a couple of times & teams will be leaving players back from their defensive lines just in case the kick comes over & will be leaving their up front defence weaker. Let the ball do the work.

Surely if he was a good kicker he could do all these great kicks on the 5th tackle?

Pointless debate now, he is in situ seemingly till the end of the season. Cant see either party thinking it will be a good idea for him to stay next season with Widdop on his way. I hope he does well in the meantime but as my mantra is "expect the worst but hope for the best..."

The 40-20 is one of the most potent, demoralising threats any team possesses; if, in Patton, we had someone who could kick them regularly then the coaching team would be encouraging it, not actively discouraging it.

What dismays me most is the pointless running across the line he does. And don't anyone tell me no-one is giving him an option, the team just look as baffled as he does.

completely wrong..... again

If im blaming anyone for the saints defeat.... it would be ratchford (im not blaming him btw, as there were plenty of poor performances.. he was the worst though)... Patton was just poor, he was off the pace and had nothing to offer.... pretty much like every game this season.

he just isnt good enough.

60 yards across a field, 3 players covering it, kicking 40+ yards dictates that you need a bit of height in trajectory to make the distance, odds are stacked in the favour of the defenders.

This is against kicking early against one person covering those 60 yards, which it would be harder to find the fullback on the full than it would be to hit the ground.

And to answer the point about coaches not restricting this, we’ve seen Austin (at Hull from memory) kick the ball at least 60 yards on the fly, he’s also done this finding touch with penalties. So that demonstrates that we have people who can kick distance, and kick relatively accurately, so if they are not being discouraged to do it by the coaches, the half backs need coaching to start doing it! Chipping the ball in the arms of fullbacks isn’t effective.

Whats the betting Patton leaves us next year and signs for Wigan or Saints and they have him kicking on the 3rd or 4th, banging 40/20s everywhere while we're stuck with a 31 year old Widdop.

i guess its a risk we're going to have to take.....

Slightly less than Lama Tasi landing the golden point drop goal at Old Trafford, I would imagine.

Awful again

At least he's consistent.
Still, there were plenty worse, today.

If I were Price, I'd be sending a 30odd year old Brown off to Lourdes, for some spiritual "healing", so he comes back to the starting XIII, earlier. As hard as he tries (and he does give great effort), Patton simply isn't the answer.

Sorry, lad.

We may have to have a forced change for Monday. It looked like Dec was injured at the end of that shambles of a game.

Good,harsh I know but he won’t get dropped so if he is injured then someone else gets ago.