1000 cockneys.....2 french folk !

Have they counted all the Barnet FC membership as part of the crowd?

Alas, the commute would be a bugger....still aiming to be there for the season closer v the Bradford Bills in September though. I generally listen to games, but today I had to resign myself to Twitter feeds and the Superleague website.

I await the avalanche of "better performance/close to getting a win" type posts followed by "how would you know Gutterfax....you weren't there...."
fact is.....I've read match reports on the Sportinglife and BBC as well as the SL site which were penned by those that were there. These contain comments such as






I read from these that we tried hard, but in reality, Catalan bossed the game and we scared them at the end when they thought it was all over with 15 minutes to go.

As I say, I expect those who were there to come back with rose tinted reports.....Next up FC who will be hopefully battered and knackered after their last gasp derby defeat....we need to start that game as we finished this to have a snowballs.

positives and negatives from the game for us.
Negatives first I think!
It took a good 45 minutes for the boys to realise you need to complete a set of six to score points.
When we did complete in the second half, last play option execution was poor I think 3 times we kicked the ball allowing the dragons to take the ball on the full in goal and get the quick restart.
We don't seem to have any obvious leadership on the park.
Over excitement when they got anywhere near the Dragons line led to errors and dropped ball.
Couple of first half breaks no support runners.
Poistives!
The game seemed dead at half time, but they did not drop off.
Defence pretty good apart from the 2 easy tries, one through a gaping hole the other poor defence after a penalty.
I think we had 6 goal line drop outs 3 on the trot from which they didn't score.
Penalty count was pretty low

Overall, Dragons are not the same outfit as last year, the basic difference between the squads was down to physicality! Dragons adopted a 1 on 1 defence for nearly the whole game with no sliding defence.
We had to have a sliding defence to be able to put bodies into effect the tackle as they are a big side in comparison and we had to put 3 or 5 into each tackle.
Had Bosc had his same boots on as last weekend the game was ours.
Personally despite some of my suggestions from the touch line the officials had a good game, a couple of 50/50 calls went against us, but a couple went our way as well.
Had we completed a few more sets I think the Dragons would have tired a bit sooner, and the result could have come our was

Think we all agree, actually an entertaining night! 1003 not good but better than a lot of us thought.
Yes another loss and yes we are still pointless but the brasso is still out and that glitter covered turd looks a bit shiner tonight despite the loss.
Nothing to do with rose tinted specs GF, we took our chances. Catalan defence was strong but like in any game fatigue will open up gaps. They did not look like a team that had taken there foot off the gas, they were a team that were getting worn down.

Just watching the 2nd half of the "Ull" derby hopefully they have battered each other enough to give us a chance on Monday

Unlike the Cas game top marks for effort.

As long as the team are trying they'll get my backing.

The last 10 minutes don't paper over the cracks. London, strange how I can't say we, are a poor side with no leadership but a little honest endeavour. Dragons were missing a few and took their foot of the gas and applied the handbrake.

paddock, did the apply the brakes or did they start to show a bit of fatigue?
Agree with you, we have no leadership.
As for them missing a few, you can only play what is in front of you.
Games normally go with teams being in ascendency for 20 min periods, it boils down to what you can do in the 20 you are on top.
When we played basic rugby, competed our sets, we did not look that bad.
Like I said, Catalan are not in the form they had last year, so yep that took a bit of shine, but like I said you play what is in front of you.
optimist will say we started to play
pessimist will say they took there foot off the gas and let us in.

Gus has gone now.

Although didn't he promise to come back as a fan?

Well, he's already lost the lowest ever London SL crowd crown he worked so hard to get

It was neither a crucifixion or resurrection but both nearly occurred! A great effort but leadership lacking in attack and all the Cats tries came from close in. Nowhere near a 1,000 there, but any newbies would have enjoyed it. Happy Easter to all. #COYB

Did think 1000 was err generous, but who am I to doubt em

When we had season tickets you were counted as 'in' whether you were present or not. Now we don't have season tickets I guess someone has realised their mistake and is correcting in by including some like for like 'membership' figure to compensate.

Aren't we clearly unfit and need a new conditioner? I'm confused. How did we rally and score late in the game if true.

A thoroughly enjoyable match, even at half-time I never felt we were out of the contest. Admittedly at 28-4 it looked all over but we kept plugging away and got some deserved scores. Not seen any stats but I reckon the possession and territory would be pretty even, just didn't take our chances.

Farrer is yet to impress me but Drinkwater seems to be offering something in attack now. Duckworth looked average at best, hopefully he'll get better as he gets fitter.

But I honestly don't think we're too far off, if we get Dixon & Dollapi back it'll make a difference. A back 3 of Dixon, Solomona and Mataitonga would be exciting and Dollapi would be an improvement on Greenwood who is pretty decent in defence but doesn't run his weight when in possession.

And also, the Catalans replacement hooker Guasch(?) was the smallest SL player I've ever seen. 5 foot 4 maybe

Counting tickets sold as attendance is standard practice these days.

Arsenal declare 60,000 sell outs every week despite often being 10,000 shy of bums on seats.

& Saracens are notorious for creative accounting.

But lets not open that can of worms again.

You just did.

rooster! I don't think fitness was actually the issue yesterday, in fact as the game went on, that was when we scored.
As I mentioned before, the difference apart form Gauche and escargot!!(little morgan) the Catalan squad probably had at least 2 or 3 kilos on the London players if not more. It was down to the physicality of the Dragons that closed us down. That worked in our favour later in, the big fellas started to tire and we exploited.
That or they stopped trying depending on yr view!

No more than 200 there

Catalans had Big ears, Duraeu, Webb, Millard to name a few missing.

Its that bad Ive today cancelled my season tickets. Im done with them, enough is enough. I will see them in Manchester but wont be at the Hive again unless something drastic changes. That team wouldnt compete at the top of the championship it is utterly woeful.

Bloody hell????!!!!!!!????

There was a lot more than 200 there but I doubt there was 1000.

I assume all the Barnet Membership for both clubs has been counted regardless whether they turned up or not, it may be that only 200 were in the ground, yet 1002 was the declared figure.

I'd have said 800

That was my impression.

200?? Seriously ?
If so that means there were more at Stags v Skolars today!

There was 150-200 in the East stand and 400-500 in the west. At least 600 but no more than 800 imo.

Really enjoyed the game. For the first hour Broncos appeared to make life hard for themselves by being pushed of the pitch instead of going down, failing to get over the try line to prevent a drop out and not using all 6 tackles to get up the field. But the last 20 minutes were absolutely fantastic.

Special mention for the announcer had no clue what so ever and had clearly been drafted in from the footy. Overall a good nights entertainment with plenty of Barnet fans who had taken up the offer.

Bizarre thing on the way out was being surrounded by teenagers speaking german, god knows how they got drafted in.