Butler is a work in progress he looks like he could be good but has a way to go. Made up with Mulhern though from what I've seen of him, absolutely the prop we have been looking for. Need a couple more though in the long term and to find a way of getting the best from Philbin.

Always the way, sadly. Look how many pages the match threads run to when we lose, compared to when we win. We are the first side to have scored over 200 points this season. Not bad going for "five drives and a kick to Toby King". Yes, I know we are far from perfect and there is a lot about our play that can justifiably be criticised. But it seems some people on here would rather say nothing than something positive.

Butler looks unfit and carrying more Timber than i've seen before. He needs more game time to get him up to scratch.
We won today but not amazingly, they are missing Watts, Evalds, Mata'utia, Holmes, Millington, matagi who pulled out in the warm up, and a few others. We scored in the back end of the match when they got tired but other than that it was 50/50 for most of it. Different squad when we face them in the cup wgich will be a much harder game if they are all fit.
We scored some great tries though and it's one to build on.
Thewlis dropped the ball twice but other than that had another good game. i wonder how long he will keep lineham out the squad for.
Philbin once again starting at 13 failed to have a big impact, he's the definition of an impact sub and needs to start games on the bench.
Widdop has been in superb form all year and Austin had a good game aswell.

Highly doubt Sita and clark will be here next year so I suspect they will be their replacements!

On the game itself Widdop, Ratchford and Austin became the holy trinity we all hoped for, for god knows how long for... they all played great, on the same wave length and along with Clark it was good to see us put near 40 points on a decent team. Only slight negative was Thewlis gifting them territory in our half after a couple soft knock-ons, as previously stated on another thread I think Lineham has done his penance now and should get back into the side next week.

Ratchford was on top form and the half backs were on song too. I think our best team is now pretty clear cut and I would make a couple of changes vs. Salford. My main concern is our lack of cover so that if we lose players we can't just bring in a straight replacement we have to shuffle positions too much. If we had got as many injuries as Cas had picking a team looks difficult. Centre and Second Row are my main worries re. lack of cover.

Didn’t really notice Austin much yesterday to be honest, maybe because I was focusing on Widdop who was outstanding. And maybe because Cas marked Austin well.

I’d still like to see a bit more happen on that right side though. It doesn’t really click like the left does.

We only have one natural centre in King, Mamo has done really well for us but he is centre/wing cover in reality. Roebuck is a natural centre but has not had any game time this year and was stuck on the wing in the only senior game that we saw him play. Similarly we have Connor Wrench ( who was BR and now playing centre) but has also had little game time at SL level. So partly because of Covid but also SP's conservative approach, our academy juniors are playing Championship standard to get them game time. I don't think that is a bad thing in itself, the academy prospects can get errors out of their system and get used to a higher game tempo, but inevitably it has left us in a position where we are vulnerable if we collect a string of injuries.

I was out celebrating a great Wire win. We all want the same thing at the end of the day: our team to be successful.

Much better performance. Thought Widdop was very good again. Currie and Mulhern too.

I watched York's game last week to see how Riley Dean was getting on. He certainly creates chances and has a good turn of speed. He also looks more mature and confident, but makes a fair few mistakes as well. I think at the moment he is probably in the perfect environment to grow his game and develop although he could as you have previously suggested cover for a HB injury. Austin is certainly putting in the effort, but he is erratic and easily loses his temper when he makes a mistake. He has not been one of our most memorable signings.

Riley Dean "Certainly creates chances and has a good turn of speed" ... that sounds good to me.
I would stick with Widdop & Austin for now but would like to see Dean get a run out at the appropriate time. But you wouldn't want to get him back if he isn't going to play.

A much better performance than last week (it's hard to imagine a worse performance than last week's first half effort). Now that we're not trying to accommodate Inglis we looked far more balanced with players in their preferred positions. Philbin is missing the spark that he showed last year, but he’s not become a bad player. Thewlis dropped a couple of howlers. Hopefully this won’t knock his confidence in the long term but it’s made it a lot easier to bring Lineham back in off the naughty step.

I had wanted to see Butler on the bench ahead of Walker and I was disappointed that he didn’t his chance until 13 minutes from the end, but then he failed to impress. Judging by his squad number he was brought in for the future / cover so not a disaster, he may improve as time goes on. Mulhern continues to look to be good value for money.

Just reading the cas forum. Jeez they're not happy.

One thing that concerns me that seems to be a constant thought on there, Powell tendency to put square pegs in roun holes rather than replace like for like.

Considering the conversation on this recently (and historically) it bothers me we may have another coach who will do this

It's all very well suggesting that you replace like with like but sometimes it just cannot be done.
With players of varying standards and small squads & with Cas's big injury problems players just have to shuffle. When I read the regular criticism of shuffling I would like to see forum members give an alternative full team listed ... then we could see what the reality of the "square pegs round holes" theory really is. So a moan such as ... why play Ratchford at half-back, King at Second Row, Thewlis on the wing or Currie at Half Back does not tell the full story.
Cas just had to shuffle the pack and we sometimes have to do the same.
Selecting sides has always been a compromise.

Perhaps our fitness levels helped yesterday & in our second half recovery against Hudds. Cas did some good moves & matched us toe to toe for nearly an hour .Was it 6 goal line drop outs they forced so our last line defence must have saved the day.

I'm sure, but much like price moving 3 players to solve one problem, Powell seems to do similar rather than trusting his kids,

Not as extreme an example but they were short in the forwards yesterday, especially at prop so for some weird reason he plays George Griffin a prop at 2nd row, which probably helped us attack Richardson more effectively, when they had a couple of junior back rows on the bench.

It seems to be a particular moan to cas fans as this had been an issue for a few seasons now and it was stated that they had strength in depth for 2021.

A slightly more topical view, his refusal to use youngsters during his time, which may have contributed to cas not being awarded an elite academy franchise this week.

Are you seriously suggesting that comments on forums, after a team gets hammered, are all worth reading?
There are maniacs who have never been responsible for selecting a team in their lives who suddenly know so much more.
I personally don't know the players at Cas but criticising Powell before he arrives, without knowing the full story, seems a bit unfair.

Who's criticising?

I'm just highlighting a point, a coaching characteristic if you will of our incoming coach, which happens to be a similar disliked coaching characteristic of our current coach.

I think its a fair point to make, and something I've noticed before ie having a prop playing stand off

That's just brought back a memory of Ian Knott starting at stand off in a game at Wilderspool. He went for two or three 40-20s, all of which he struck beautifully off the boot but which spiralled firmly into the wall of Snookers.

The one thing from yesterday that bothers me Is DP mentioning the players out injured, in the past we have mocked him for this as it was always is standard line after a defeat. It just seems it’s every year I just hope that kind of bad luck or whatever it is does not transfer here with him.

Well, the one thing (or maybe two things) I think we should praise Price and the backroom staff for is that defensive line resilience and our endurance post-2017. Although we've been bang average in attack the last three years, we've mostly been good at scrambling and keeping out teams on repeat sets. We also rarely seem to run out of puff, and just hang in there like the eliminator at Saints 2018, or the cup final 2019. I do realise that this year we've looked a bit leaky and unfocussed in a few games for whatever reason, shuffling and all that.

It's a shame that Price just hasn't been able to make us into a clinical and cohesive attacking unit, because we've certainly got the weapons at our disposal as we saw yesterday. And for some reason, we just seem to lose interest in the last few weeks of the season when we need to stand up and be counted. Whether that's more than just Price who knows?

Personally, I didn't go to the match and since it wasn't on SKY I had to rely on the pantomime that is BBC Radio Merseyside, which gave me as much insight into the game as I have on the mating habits of the Peruvian Tree Slug.

So, I'm not qualified to comment. What I did glean was that we soaked up a lot of pressure and played some good stuff in the final quarter, with Widdop, Currie and Ratchford very much to the fore. So, maybe Ratch isn't quite the washed up, past it jersey hog that is holding back Ashton and Thewlis that was rumoured.

That was the nikau's farewell bbq match

I had Ratchford down as player of match but difficult to argue with Widdop. He got the ball in situations that suited his skills and wasn't trying to create from scratch. Some very good quick hands.

Just highlighting a criticism then?
Les Boyd would be a very creative Stand Off. Bill Payne not so good.

You are a lot older than I thought you was.