He was asked directly by Lloyd "does it hurt you?", "what would you say to them?" And so on. If he said he wasn't bothered people would say he's a deaf/blind idiot. He says it does and feels it's partly unjustified and he's still wrong.

I got Griffin, so that's it then. Although Taylor is stretching it a bit. If he counts for them, we can add Whiting to ours & say we had 6.

So they did have more internationals than us. He was asked I think about their request to postpone the game due to 16 injuries. Pointing out the strength they still had plus our own absences is fair response.

Gildart played for England u17s

Salford should be charged with bringing the game into disrepute for their actions this week. It's supposed to be a top professional sport yet they embarrass themselves and the game by trying to postpone a game and then fielding a pretty competitive team. Radford was entirely correct to point this out.

Kr was more under strengthened then any side this week, they didn't just roll over & give up.......

as said before we had a pack missing paea cunningham bowden, hadley,ellis westerman, sub green, thats a lot of forward power sat in the stands

And it showed particularly with 20 to go I thought we were losing the battle in the middle but fair play we hung in there.

Exactly. We are awful to watch. Being awful to watch only really cuts it as acceptable when you're winning nearly every week. If all we're going to do is survive, entertain us whilst doing so. That might well be the difference between Hull & Rovers fans that he doesn't understand, they get entertained, we get bored.

All I'm saying is he is contributing to how he is being perceived by fans with the way that he is handling himself, and I don't understand how he can think it will help. Gates are falling because people don't want to watch the rugby he has us playing, I don't see how criticising them and dropping hints that they are crap fans compared to other teams will reverse that trend.

In fairness our fans have been getting progressively crapper for a long time - in tandem with our demise over several years. It's also far easier to have a view aired these days. On balance he shouldn't have a go at the fans - or at least he should address his thoughts to those with banners but thank the majority of supporters who don't have banners, who turn up week in and week out when it really isn't easy, and who did actually get behind the team in the second half today. I think he has a right to take on his detractors but he should be praising the type of support that the team got tonight albeit late on.

I don't think he'd be wrong to say it as you've said it. As I've just said to easthull fc fan, what I don't understand is how he thinks the confrontational way he goes about things will help. He can say that it hurts and that he doesn't think all of the criticism is fair without antagonising anyone, but he picked a known tender spot by comparing Hull and Rovers fans and hinting that they are better fans. What good can that possibly engender?

After Saints he had a pop about fans who change their mind week to week, a month on and he's criticising fans for essentially still holding the same opinion as they did then, for being doom and gloom despite winning, pretty much the definitive opposite. I think he's either in denial, or doesn't truly understand what the unhappy fans are actually unhappy about.

He's a one trick pony coach who regardless of who's fit , Dropped , Injured , Signed , Will play the same monotonous style of rugby he only knows.
Have we really played any different with a full squad than the team he put out tonight ?.. imo no .

I mostly agree. He has a right to take on his detractors, but in his role he has a responsibility to do so in a measured way IMO. Being antagonistic and bordering on aggressive at times is not appropriate. In other businesses you wouldn't have a pop at your customers if they criticised your product, would you?

Radford just keeps on showing why he is not the man for the job, rather than just focusing on the win, who did a good job etc he just can't help himself having a pop.
He seems to be unable to fathom why fans are being critical, why fans are staying away but even then he should just shut up and say nothing and let the performances do the talking.
Only they aren't, we've being truly shocking for the most part playing the most boring least organised rugby since I can remember.
IF we avoid the middle 8s and then get into the top 6 by end of the season then he stays, if not he goes, it's as simple as that for me.

Omitting the win from last night, the performance clearly shows that the
coaching team is unable to remedy our deficiencies.

Radford is in a 'Death Row' scenario, where his execution is.. not an 'If'
but a 'when'.

After listening to his interview, where he states that when Ellis & Paea, our attack will be transformed, he is clearly in denial ,that the coaching team cannot improve our much maligned attack.

He states, we run the same plays as Leeds Rhinos, but they implement these plays with speed & precision, through repetitive drills in training.
we dont.

I sincerely hope Pearson, changes his policy of appointing from within,
as the next in line, is cut from the same cloth, that is woven from the same fabric, that has caused our demise.

Having listened to the interview, I don't think there was too much aimed at the fans IMO.

Doesn't change my opinion that LR hasn't got the skills to pay the bills in terms of attacking plays and then getting his players to execute his ideas (having said that, I don't believe Anderson, McDermott and Wane come up with Leeds and Wigans attacking plays, it's more likely that comes from attacking coaches and there in lies the problem).

The big faux pas LR made in that is he fell into that old trap of comparing us against KR. Claiming their fans are enthused and enjoying a season of entertaining attacking rugby, yet our fans are suicidal but we are above them.

What of course he doesn't realise that being above KR is as relevant as being above Widnes or Wakefield (to most FC fans).

Using the old we are turd but we are above KR shout doesn't wash with me. I watched them lose 60-0 last night, if our barometer of success is just being better than that, then we've had it.

But, we did win a game that we might have lost a few weeks back, and the players deserve a little credit for hanging in, regardless of the opposition.

Strike players wasn't the wrong term, he should have said keys players, Westy, Shaul, Paea and Ellis are all massive players for us and big losses.

His dig at the fans isn't the issue for me, it's the fact he seems convinced we're a great attacking side held back by injuries to players who will make a difference to our attack. We're not and none of the injured players will have a transformative effect on our attack.

I listened to both interviews on the way home and Chester was big enough to admit "the buck stops with me". I can't recall LR ever having said this, it appears its always the players' fault. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

They are but none would (or have when they've played) make that much difference to the attacking structures. radford made mention of strike players and something about leeds getting players "3 on 3" (from memory, can't be bothered to listen again) and creating something from nothing. We haven;t done that since he took over so it's unlikely to suddenly happen.

No I can't.

And I fear that after the next 3 games we will back in 11th repeating the same old stuff.

To be fair take 8 1st choice players out of any team,and your chances of scoring decrease,and when a couple more get injured during the match,its not a real surprise.Also chester didnt blame injuries unlike some coaches,he just said it was men against boys and they were too good.

Yeah, may as well throw the towel in and let the opposition take the piiss

You should be well used to that,getting beat and radford making excuses.Radford takes the piiss and most of you have took 2 years to see it.

Much as I want Radford to succeed his coaching inexperience is costing us. I believe he has the hard mentality we appear to miss on the field but he is still struggling with a professional coaching approach in which he does not favour his long standing buddies (like Yeaman) who are average SL players at best. We are still soft and make really stupid decisions in both defence and attack - the low point for me was giving catalans a chance to score after the end of first half hooter with a stupid poor pass from sneyd which was dropped by a forward. For me Sneyd is i am afraid a little windy and frightened to go right upto the defensive line before releasing a pass. in the cats game he should have had the guts to hold the ball and take the last tackle.

The squad we have ( 3rd highest wage bill in SL according to pearson) is not performing to full potential. how much is down to poor coaching and poor recruitment I am not 100% sure but the coach must take responsibility for a lot of it. I think Radders is honest and committed to doing his best for the club but in my assessment of his comments a loss to Salford at home yesterday should have resulted in him offering his resignation. Salford came well understrength and we expected a big reaction from the players to the Huddersfield shambles so a scrape home 4 point win is not much to get excited about. We won so he gets a stay of execution.

maybe I am reading too much into it but i do not want to hear the coach of Hull FC say in an interview that we are in 9th spot and 1point away from where we WANT TO BE. Is it really our target just to be 8th !!!. pearson said from his start just reaching the 8 would never be an acceptable level of mediocrity under his tenure. I cannot believe Pearson thinks he is getting value for money from the first team squad.

the brightest point for me is however the investment put into the junior levels of the club in the last 4 years is starting to come to fruition. the U16 and 19's are excelling under Horney. we clearly have the requisite talent coming through - the question is are we transferring and developing these players in to top SL to make us the top 4 side we should be.

I am coming to the wire game next week but i really don't know what we will get. its a fair trek from Switzerland and its my yearly treat so I hope we compete.