Firstly, I absolutely get the frustration with results and performances. They don't look pretty. Fans rightly have questioned this. (Not the grudge brigade, they'll always want misery). Genuine fans who are frustrated with where we are at, at the minute. I haven't really said anything about Chezzy as like Michael both shouldn't be untouchable as regards critisicm. They're not perfect and make mistakes.

Chris is a young coach whose done some good things and some bad things. We've had great success in respect of what we're used to. Top 5 finishes etc. He is learning and always needs to look at where he can improve like players need to.

The last 18 months has been rotten to us with injuries and COVID and at times soul destroying. As a coach it must be horrendous to work with. I've absolute empathy.

I've looked on social media at many, many different opinions and I wonder which one Chezzy should chose? Not digging the fans, it's just factual to say I've seen so much variation in team selection, how we should play, what we should do etc. Who is right?
"Last kick options are killing us and they're starting their sets on the 30", "Forwards aren't creating the platform", "Wrong half backs", "Wrong SR selection", "Wrong Captain", "Wrong structure", etc etc.

My post isn't saying Chezzy shouldn't have critics, it's just not as simple as we as fans make it out to be sometimes.

Anyway I hope we get back to normal soon, I felt that buzz again last night! Let's hope that continues.

No buzz for me just expected them to lose

No buzz for me it’s just the normal these days, while people keep accepting mediocrity that’s exactly what we will get. 5 from 27 says it all

I've nothing against him as a person, I'm sure he's lovely. But he used up the last drops of the good will he earned with the better seasons when he got within 10points of us being relegated last year.

Without that good will, he's now getting judged on his current performance, and that simply isn't good enough. We've gone backwards since nearly being relegated and Chester doesn't seem to have any answers for this.

We can't use covid as an excuse - it's affected every team.

We can't use injuries as an excuse - every team has them, both Wire and Hull had more players out than we did yesterday and both picked up wins.

[/u

Wrong!

Regarding the amount of players out.

Call me naive, but yesterday’s effort gave me some hope that we are on the right track. Think that was Senior’s last game for us. Think the kid has done all right for us.

You're a naive, Willzay...sorry, couldn't resist





Think you could be right about Senior, so hopefully Tom might be in the 17 next week ???

5 wins from 25 with embarrassing losses to nil, passionless, clueless performances, same structural problems for the last 5 years despite being able to work with the same core group of players during that time.

You can call fans who aren’t happy “ grudge fans” whatever that means or insinuate that anyone not seeing unicorns and rainbows in our performances aren’t “genuine fans” all you like. The fact is we’ve been rank bad awful for at least 2 years, maybe it’s the Brian Smith factor wearing off or maybe the John Kear influence dissipating but Chester’s obviously not good enough!

It’s not the Wrong forwards, wrong platform, wrong halfbacks, wrong selection that’s the issue it’s the fact we’ve got the Wrong Coach! He been trying now for about 8 years and like HKR before us we’re now suffering from the coaches inadequacy!

We had 5 players missing yesterday, I could argue it was 4, you might argue 6 but either way it’s not an excuse for the dross we’re getting served

Walker, Johnstone, Miller, Brough, Fifita, Wood, Arona, Ashurst, Kirmond, Batchelor, Arundel, Gigot and Kay. Granted Brough and Kirmond are practically retired but we had quite a large number of absentees, be it injured, Covid related or not selected.

Pre lockdown we won 2/5 which over the course of a season is probably a standard win percentage for us. Post lockdown, it’s nosedived. Lack of confidence, lack of consistency in the line up.

There was no excuse for the Catalans league game. None whatsoever. Yes we lost players to injury in the first half, but I will admit the set up and attitude that day was horrible.

You can’t just run through the unplayed members of the first team squad!

Walker, Jowitt played ahead of him, he’s a first teamed and often been a starting Full Back
Johnstone is a genuine miss for us and would be for any team
Miller, dropped, injured or Covid, he’s been terrible and just skates by uncriticised
Brough, come on Wlzay! He’s semi retired and has effectively moved on
Fifita could have been selected if we wanted to pick him
K Wood was a genuine miss
Arona was a genuine miss, could have been on the bench
Ashurst was replaced by a better player and our best on the night but maybe on the bench
Kirmond, who would he replace Tanginoa or Pitts? Your reaching!
Bachelor, again for who Pitts or Tanginoa
Arundel for Tupou or Lyne, which one? Once again your reaching
Gigot, maybe at the expense of Bailey
Kay, not selected, would you pick him before BJB? No!
Navarette, again possible bench

Johnstone for Senior
K Wood for Crowther
Arona for Aydin
Navarette for Gwaze
Gigot for Bailey MAYBE

Would it be fair to say if those had played we would probably have won the match?

Whether we like it or not we have less resources than most and will be hurt more than most teams when we are missing a significant amount of our better players.

For us to be holding our own we need to be relatively injury free a bit like we were in Chesters early days...a bit like the run Salford has last year.

I don’t see how fans can’t grasp that?

We overachieved the two seasons we came 5th...one reason is the good luck we had with injuries, the other because some so called bigger teams under performed..

Leeds has a couple of bottom four finishes after years and years of success...they haven’t fully turned the corner but look at the money made available to them to strengthen and bring in the likes of Hurrell, Lui, Gale, etc...

Warrington finished bottom four in one of those seasons...they can open the cheque book and sign the likes of Murdoch-Massilla, Austin, Widdop...

Wigan under performed one of those years...they’ve recently been able to bring in players like Hastings, Burgess, Hardaker, French...Bateman next season.

So those clubs after a below par seasons have the financial clout to be able to make a real difference...

After Chesters first real disappointing season, which started well but was disrupted hugely by injuries...he couldn’t go out and sign that calibre of player....he has to rely on gambles and picking up players that very few other teams want...

Overall though I think his recruitment has been good...Tanginoa and Fifita have both proved to be excellent signings...last year we picked up Westerman and Pitts who have both been standout players this season...of course there will be ones that don’t work out but overall I think his signings have been decent on the budget he’s afforded.

He’s proved in the past when he’s had fully fit teams that he can get results and play attractive rugby.

This season was always going to be a write off after the interruption....pre lockdown we started ok...afterwards we’ve been unfortunate to have so much go against us whilst coming up against three of the best teams in the league where we had no chance...the first time we were up against a team we were pretty evenly matched against we did ok and in my eyes were a little unlucky not to win.

He deserves a chance to see this farce of a season out and see what he can do in the off season in terms of recruitment as I think we all know the areas we need to strengthen....then have a look again say 10 games into next season..

In answer to your first question, who knows!
We’ve put in plenty of less enthusiastic and more lacklustre performances with better teams out on the field than last nights. Also, if you’re going to ask that question you’ve got to ask if we’d be anywhere near Hull FC if they had their full team playing?

Some can, some don't want to.

Probably not, no.

The question I’d ask back is...

Was losing that game last night an under achievement on Chester’s part?

Training was disrupted leading up to the game due to Covid issues..

There was 9 changes from the previous week..

Two youngsters on debut...

Three players appearing for the first time in 6 months, a couple only their 2nd start in months.

I know Hull were in a very similar position, but we must be rock bottom on confidence after three straight defeats to three top sides, they had at least a recent win to their name when putting over 50 past Salford...maybe that was the ultimate difference in the end? Either way I don’t think we badly under performed given all the circumstances, as we haven’t in the 5/25 or whatever it is?

If we’d been expected to win 75% of those games we’ve lost in that run I’d be aboard the Chester out train without question because that would have been under performing...we weren’t expected to though, outside of our own fans who still believe we should be a top 5 side...

Please explain how recruitment as been good when we are worse as a team than last season, it’s quite simple if we’re no going forwards or we’re stood still, we are going backwards. This should of been addressed when we scraped in 5th but could of finished 8th. I don’t understand why people are standing for a better performance or a better effort, we are getting beat every week 5 from 27, we are sleepwalking into oblivion

We’ve gone backwards because in his first two seasons we were very lucky with injuries and the teams with much more financial power than us who we finished above have been able to go out and spend big money and sign top quality players we can’t afford. On the whole in his time I think Chester has had more successes than failures in his signings, especially when you take into account the budget he has to work with...

You say he deserves the chance to see out this farce of a season... Why does he deserve that chance? What have you seen in the last 5/10/15/20/25 games which warrants that chance? Injuries aren't an excuse, every club has them. Covid isn't an excuse, every club has had to deal with it.

We had our worst season under Chester last year and were within minutes of being relegated, and have gone backwards both on the pitch and with recruitment.

Maybe he needs to start listening to the fans that want the team to progress instead of listening to the ones who are happy for the club to sleep walk into relegation and likely administration

Because he had two good seasons finishing 5th.

Last season after the round 14 win at Huddersfield (half way through the season) we were 3rd in the league before we were crippled with injuries. Are you saying injuries played no part last season after such a good start when we were at full strength?

This season pre lockdown wasn’t the worst and I’m prepared to write this season off as it’s clearly having an affect.

My interest in the present season hovering aroud zero. I like to keep up to date with events but my enthusiasm gone.
Just what should the club do in a season thats lost . I excepted years ago that we are most unlikely to be challenging for honours then we managed to string a couple of seasons together that offered hope but then webt back.
The last 2 seasons have been a shambles you can blame injuries, tatics , recruitment or the coach but one things for sure C C can think himself fortunate on a couple of fronts. 1 injuries have played a part and definitely hindered results , however the constant changing of positions didnt help. 2 owners from other clubs would have been less patient but chester probably fits in to a wage bracjet that the club would have to increase should chester be removed. 3 The fans of the club have become extremely cost conscious when it comes to new signings and have excepted that the club has no or little money for quality players . Effectively the hard core of supporters will except average meritocracy with a couple of brilliant results along the way.

I can’t think of any club in any sport where the teams Coach or Manager can lose 22 games from 27, preside over uninspirational and dire performances lacking any passion for the shirt which culminate in a 58 - 0 and 38 - 0 shellackings and still have fans defending him and he keeps his job.

My worry isn’t for this season, though I do think the teams performances will cost us, my concern is that we are going with the same again when it will matter.

If this season offers the club anything it’s the chance to sweep the coaching deck and bring in someone totally new. Give that person the chance to assess his players, get them in superb physical condition and ingrain attacking and defensive systems in them so we can start next season with a chance of staying up.

Ian Watson at Salford lost 19 out of 26 games over the back end of the 2017 season and the 2018 season. They finished 11th in 2018 and won 2 out of their last 10 games. In that run they suffered defeats of......25-0...38-14....24-50....30-0....10-60...45-14...52-22....44-10...

Prior to that he'd finished 10th in his first season in charge but suffered points deduction and actually won the same amount of games as us {10}....the season after they finished 4th...we finished 5th...same wins {13}....then they nosedived to 11th.

Did they get twitchy and think....well we've survived and finished one spot above relegation? No, they stuck with their man who over the course of the last couple of seasons had done a decent job at one of the so called lower clubs. Last season they had a dream run to the end of the season and reached the gran final...a super advert for sticking with a man who's done well, followed by a poor run.

This season...after losing many top players they're again struggling and are currently sat with the same 2 wins from 9 games as us....should Salford be sacking Watson?

How many finals has Chester taken Trinity to in his time here? Is he going to take us to any finals this season?

The answer is none and (very likely) no, which means that it's not really comparing like for like. Watson has bought himself a stay of execution with that, Chester hasn't, but has presided over more and worse losses