I thought the game tonight was very poor. We made far too many mistakes and I thought Leigh came with a game plan that almost worked. The ref in my opinion was poor for both sides but without seeing the game again we had some important decisions that went our way at crucial times.

The most disapointing thing for me was watching the Leigh number 3 asking the ref to put the punch up on report in order to get our players into trouble. It's the kind of thing a football player would do, very poor and not required in my opinion.

MR Stolkes has recently been awarded a full time contract too

dont you mean that someone has put a contract out on him or is that wishfull thinking i suppose

I'm with you underthesticks. The ref gave us plenty for 15 minutes and then redressed the balance for the remainder of the half hence Fev being in our half for most of the half.

We should have scored early in 2nd half but Ridy decided not to pass for some reason and then the ref went into "I hate Leigh" mode again. I can't recall seeing a refereeing performance that one sided since Mr Whitelamb against Sheffield at HP many years ago. It was blatently in favour of Featherstone.

Of course we came with a game plan but the usual Fev plan of lying on and wrestling in the tackle went unpunished as always. On a flat track with a ref who wants to see quick play the balls I think we'd win with our best team.

We did put down some good chances and gifted them two tries as well which was disappointing.

The ref has had better games, he made a few mistakes as they all do but he was not responsible for the loss. The responsibility for the loss rests with whoever decided to take on Featherstone up the middle AGAIN. It never works.

cant believe what I am reading about the ref, He gave you lot a start and murdered us for 25 minutes. We were all going mad about him. He never gave us a chance in the first half and was forever relieving you of any pressure.

I have watched the game back and non of the second half decisions were controversial. just a team giving away silly pens when under pressure. we upped the tempo and you couldn't handle it.

sour grapes i think

Officiating aside it's a double contract with Turley too

Was he the myopic fool on the Bullock Stand side that didn't see Finn get stamped on right under his nose?

Fev improved 2nd half, we needed to score a try from our own half 'kinda thing' as Fev were playing downhill, and we hardly had the ball in their half. I think (red & white tinted specs) that we were unlucky with the final scoreline, dunno if Ridyard try decision was correct, but when it was disallowed said to my mate "that's it now".
Rightly or wrongly we got caned in the penalties 2nd half, and we didn't stand a chance.
Last 15/20 minutes 1st half they spent a lot of time attacking our line, we defended brilliantly.
But after 40 minutes, Rovers looked a lot better, and if you are a Leigh fan, 'Ginger Ref' is the reason we lost.
He isn't, but the scoreline could have been a lot closer.

Also, for the Fev fans saying the ref 'caned' them in the 1st half, Premier stated that they went into half time 13 - 7 up in the penalty count, then were 7 - 2 up at one point in the 2nd half and also at one point had been awarded 8 consecutive penalties. All of which were for 'technical' offences. We were absolutely murdered tonight by the ref. Fev played the better rugby for sure, but we can't play without the ball!! We must have been knackered by 60 mins due to the non stop defending we were FORCED into doing by the clueless moron in the middle.

Disgraceful tonight from Stokes.

Anyone know what the penalty count for the whole game was?

45-3

Well I was at the game and thought both our attack and defence first half was impressive.

Re the ref he gave us penalties for 15 minutes and to me it looked like everything he gave after that was in Fev's favour. Well I am biased.

Re the obstruction and forward pass tries that we had disallowed first one looked a good try and the pass for the other one definately did not look forward to me.

I don't have the benefit of replays being at the game of course but I thought Stokes was worth 4 out of 10.

He had a bad game but even I make mistakes.

Well. Another bite of the cherry next week.

so why have you visited our forum pal ?
we'll both be in the same division for the next 2 years at least.....

Another thing that surprised me was the announced gate which mean's Fev had less than 1500 fans there.

Maybe a lot of their usual attendees watched on the telly

shared gate son, think about it

Just watched the game back, and after reading some of the shiiiiite on here thought i would add my bit, i have played the stupid game for 30 years all be it amateur. I had a chat to Leyther Matt in the sss house at ht and he thought the slope would do it for us. My thoughts are the ref played no part in the result, i could of refed it, rotherham fev fan could of or, bill harrigan could of, the result would of been the same. Leigh threw the kitchen sink at us 1st 20, then spent 20 mins defending, and this was the defining 20 mins it sapped your energy allowing us to run some points in last 20, the ley number 3 think it was littler was putting himself about in the opening period as were some of your forwards, shoving, cajoling, squaring up and generally having a right old go, fair play to em reminded me of a GB aussie test BUT just like in an Aussie GB test you stopped playing in the last 10 mins, were was littler no squaring up to any feker while his victim worthington was running ragged. you lost the game not because of the ref but because you didnt play to the bell

Perhaps. I'm prepared to gamble that a similar trend will be seen at the LSV next thursday Francis!

Ask Lynn for some punctuation for thi christmas box!!!

Rowley after the game said something along the lines of…
We’ve gave away an averaged of 5 penalties per game all season, the last three games we’ve had a three, a two and a three, tonight we had sixteen, <with a hint of sarcasm> we need to understand why.

Gingdong, complete and utter buzzcox pal.
Fev play one way. Throw bodies late in the tackle and slow the ptb whilst playing off Dickens and others finding the ground for a QPTB and give every cheap shot possible (always a player around the neck), thats why your halves generally get so much space to exploit and have developed such a great kicking game.
First 20 Leigh played them at their own game and Fev were clueless, it was Leigh getting a 10 sec ptb as well as Fev. As a consequence you made few yards made mistakes and gave away penalties - it was frustration as this is not what Smith told Powell he would give him.
At around 20 mins we tried a silly offload and turned posession over, we then got caned the rest of the game. By caned I mean we got penalised for things Fev didn't - we did them, but the ref allowed Fev to get away with them. We were out at HT but the Pownall try gave hope.
Second half we came out stronger than I thought and caused problems but you cannot defend against that good a team playing downhill who are being GIVEN that much ball, yet we should have scored 3 try's, the third being Gardiner too lazy to go low for the line and getting held up.
Could we have held on with such a depleted pack - I thought we would get steamrolled here pre game but I believe without that bent barsteward who was so obviously got at we would have won last night.
Thank you for the effort lads, you were first class last night. Get the bruises treated, the limbs rested and lets do it next Thursday because you deserve it.

Leigh were great in the first half and scored some lovely trys in the game,we struggled to break down what was a fantastic defence at times. There were incidents all through the game that showed the frustration of the players but that is to be expected in a such an important game that was reffed by what can only be described as a clown.

I have watched a recording of the game and to be honest the ref was inept all over the park for both teams. We have been on the wrong end of some woeful reffing this season but have managed to become league champs once again despite it,that for me is the mark of a great team.

Last night we faced a great Leigh team who I think we will see at Warrington and I for one hope we do.

Why did Leigh loose ? Was it because of the ref ?No.

Was it because the fev forrards got their act together in the second half ? YES. Was it because Leigh tried to win the game down the middle ? YES. Was it because Leigh didn't play for the full 80 minutes ? Yes.

Why did Fev win ? Was it because even though they didn't play well they played tactically and played the full 80 ? Yes.

Good Luck in your Next game,based on what I saw last night you would beat either of the other 3 teams left with a performance like you gave in the first 50 mins.

The majority of Ged Stokes' penalty decisions were correct Glow. He got one or two wrong depending how you view them and he was a bit pedantic on one, maybe two decisions- where he applied the letter of the law correctly but unnecessarily - IMO.

After the initial offensive assault on Fev, assisted by our indiscipline, Leigh were then starting to tire a little and started to conceed penalties. They then started to force the issue quite understandably in the second half when the game was drifting giving Fev more possession when errors crept into Leigh's game.
The breaker to me was the obstruction decision. Instead of scoring six points, from that decision we came down field and put the ball over for two - and 8 point turnround within a minute. Leigh's players looked sluffed at that passage of play.
We thought the 'obstruction' was a good try. But there were those around us shouting obstruction immediately and before the ball was grounded. If we'd have had that try disallowed I would have been aggrieved.
I was behind our sticks - I can't comment on the forrad pass.

Leigh tired after giving their all. Their discipline wasn't as angelic as is being made out and Stokesy really isn't one of be'elzebub's goblins. He wasn't, and isn't the finet exponent of officialdom we'll ever see.
It was a niggly, at times bad tempered game. Both sets of players have a responsibility for their own discipline too, which seems to have been overlooked to some extent.

Strange that the only other time we have conceded that many penalties in a game this season was at Batley.....guess who the ref was?

Don't tell me John Kear knobbled the ref at half time....