Well, that saves me from writing an identical synopsis i suppose. Left after 75mins, and just felt so flat after the match. Back to the start of the season kind of feeling.....

i also saw monaghan go off and seemed to be limping although he did reappear. hope you get some bodies back and beat the pies in the semis good luck!

a'las that maybe so my old friend...
but i can think of a team that hasnt beaten us.. at home..or away..for how long is it 8 years..no names mentioned..apart from there used to be a cullen out topic nearly every week on their message boards...sigh!..

Great minds and all that.

We had all the ball for the first 15 mins and could do nothing with it, four knock-on's and two terrible kicking decisions by Briers made sure we wasn't going to score, after the 15 mins Hudds started to get some ball and good field position, Crabtree came on and his dominance in the forwards together with his offloads made our life real hard. Our defence was terrible with three or four breaks made without a Warrington hand near the player.

A game best left forgotten.

Okay, sniping aside, my view is that the first thing we need to get sorted is the halves followed by the defence. To me it was crystal clear in both the Saints and Huddersfield games that we were ran ragged by far superior play makers. Both Eastmond and Robinson's speed of distribution was much better than ours and were able to get the ball wide to beat our sliding defence. They then jinked inside when we expected wide balls to create the gap. Support play is also missing at times. Two great breaks against Huddersfield, especially the one by Bridge, were not supported.

We need more to our game than just getting Carvell and Morley (when he's playing) to stick the ball up their jumpers to make great yards. We then need superb distribution to help create the gaps and give us much more varied attacking options.

I am concerned that both Briers and Monaghan will occupy these potions again next season, when I don't think they are the answer. The acquisition of Myler should help, but how much pressure will then be on his young shoulders...?

I now think that we are the weakest of the last four going into the semis. I know the pies have pulled a few good wins out of the hat lately when they themselves are not playing well - but they are winning.

On a more positive note, I think we will beat Salford this weekend - but we then need to at least have a good game against Leeds away the following week to give us some much needed confidence going into what will probably be our most important game of the season. Even if we don't beat Leeds, we cannot afford a collapse like yesterday.

Still, I'd rather this be happening now than in two weeks time!!!

Oh, one advantage of being a pessimist - you can't be disappointed!! 25 years of supporting Wire has taught me this - hehe!!

I don't think Myler would have made any difference yesterday. That said, I'd have like to have seen him try. I just wish we had him now, then Bridge could go through to centre, and it's like a double signing then as two positions get filled with potent players who have that something a bit different.

Id have had him instead of Briers, the two kick options on the 4th and 2nd tackle in the first 15 mins that Briers put up were nothing short of pathetic.

His passing options were limited and he was determined NOT to take a tackle.

Well i cant say to much bad about him or the Briers faithful will be on my case again, he has his own fan club on this forum.

If/when Mylers comes in, are you expecting him to have a wonderful kicking game?

No but from what Ive seen of him he create's and supports the ball carrier more than Briers, he's also much faster and for me makes better decisions when he's made a break.

I can't recall the other you're referring to, the kick to Carney made me angry, So unnecessary, so early in the tackle count, it was a waste. That defined our game yesterday when Briers broke the line and his only option was to kick for the corner for Riley, crap.

It wasn't the only option tho, it was 4th tackle, take the tackle play the ball, the defending team on the left hand side will be late getting back in the line so take a chance instead of putting in a pointless kick.

It was, we'd just shown for the last twenty minutes, when we faced them up man on man, we weren't scoring. Had we gone right, Johnson would have taken a crap option and bombed it.

That situation, you break the line, kick for the corner, tailor made for Penny.

Probably because when he played really well for several weeks on the trot you were quiet. Now he has a poor game (?) in his comeback from injury and you're bagging him. I hope Penny does come back from his loan so you can spread your bile to more than one player.

Briers was that crap he was the only player to actually make a clean break for us all game.

The only thing I would say is that it is easy for the rest of the team to make a HB look poor if they don't run the right lines or provide support options.

Some of the people on here are so utterly blinkered about Briers. He is still a very fine footballer.

I agree totally a HB needs a good platform to be able to come up with options and players running good lines will give him options. I think Briers is a very good player, and gets a rough deal from certain fans. Even when he plays well and is the difference in a win.

Bobbins....

I agree with you.*

[size=75*Apart from Bridge made a cleanie too, cleanie meaning clean break, but i'm trying to develop a slang term for it.[/size

In all honesty you lost that game in the first 20 mins,you had so much ball because of the penaltys we were conceding and when you could not break us down you had no plan B,and your team looked deflated NB threw on Ctrabtree he just ran amok up the middle and our backs took over and as they say the rest is history.

I'll just go all SKY. Super League is so unpredictable this year that anything could happen in the last few rounds. I wouldn't be surprised if one or two of those in the top 10 now did not win another game. Nor if one of those teams also won all of their games. I wouldn't like to predict a single result.

Thanks Phil Clarke !!

Did anyone hear Clarke's assassin reference in relation to Saints last Friday?

[i'I've read Eddie that when an assasin takes out a target, they like to hit them twice in quick succession, really, that's what St Helen's do...'[/i





Accurate? Possibly. Appropriate? Never.

One to the head, two tats to the body. Phil Clarke, RFL's Special Ops go-to man....