I have been and properly still am not sure of him as coach, but fair play to him the last 2 matches,he spoke well tonight on radio rovers and hopefully we can beat wigan and finish 6

I will give him praise for a good couple of weeks, but I'm still cautious as after the magic weekend we thought we'd cracked it and then slipped back, he and the team need to keep improving and in some ways the super8's should help as the pressure will be off, most fans will be happy with committed displays

Always best to be cautious.

he's still a crap coach and a few results will not change my opinion....if we want to go forwards as a team we need a top man in charge

That's what I think too..
However I think he is getting better and learning - but do we have the luxury of giving him time to get better still up to the point where he becomes a decent coach (if he can?)

I'm not sure.

I agree...

IF Pearson wants Hull FC, to challenge for major honours, We need a proven experienced Coach.

Radford is a good defence coach, but our weaknesses still remain, too many 'lobbed' slow passes, indecesive near the opponents try line, mistiming of runs...

For mine, Radford has taken us, as far as he can.

Whatever his shortcomings as a coach, and whatever any of us on here think, he'll be our coach for 2016. He clearly has the backing of Pearson and I guess from his perspective that is all that matters.

I am beginning to wonder whether Pearson has privately come to the conclusion that we are nothing more than a mid table club and, contrary to his public pronouncements, this is now the height of his ambition, to merely stay in SL. If this is indeed the case, and it's only a supposition on my part, then why employ a top class high earning coach when the cheap option can achieve the goal just as well.

Like I said, just a passing thought, no more.

I firmly believe he's still learning this trade. We ARE showing signs of improvement, but it will not be a Wigan-esque revival. He needs a decent assistant coach, a former half back. Longy and Cunningham are instilling that attacking ethos into Saints right now. We need that.

We have achieved a goal though. We have made the top 8 and haven't suffered many BAD defeats on the way there, which means that we are not whipping boys.

I'd say the biggest test is now to come. We're not staring down the barrel of relegation so his job is safe. Unlike Chester who's taken them backwards.

I said from very early on that he needs help. To have a rookie head coach supported by someone with no first grade coaching experience is ridiculously short sighted by the club. Taking away views on skill set, there is too much work for 2 people to do properly in coaching a SL side. I also absolutely get that he is trying to instill a high performance culture at the club and tough decisions need to be made in order to achieve it.

The most frustrating thing for me is that we're so close to being a decent SL side but some really basic, fundamental things don't happen with us when we have the ball which means we're scratting around at the bottom of SL. This season has seen probably the lowest quality SL competition yet and had we been near where we can be we'd be in with a really good chance of making the top 4 and maybe even better than that

Fully agree with that.

I see alot of posts that claim our squad is no better than mid table. But if there are 7 better squads kicking about then I've certainly not seen them. That's what is frustrating. Man for man we are right up there, but they just cant seem to click together properly.

Quality of squad wise and Wakefield aside most SL teams are there or there about equal with one another now.
This is what makes quality coaching and youth development all the more important.
Sadly we are lacking in both departments compared to Leeds saints Warrington and Wigan and breeding that winning culture amongst those sides makes them a more attractive proposition for the better homegrown players to join rather than sign or stay with for example with the likes of us.
I personally think Radford has currently reached his coaching ceiling and I am still far from convinced he is the right man to take us forward any further.
Pearson though has decided he is and that our academy should merge which to me really lacks ambition.
It's ok spending on basic infrastructure but to become successful we really need that bit more investment to take that next successful step to make us a more attractive proposition for players and fans.

Warringtons youth are no better then ours, if out is say it's worse.

We are going to finish higher than last year in a more competitive league and we have made the Super 8's so its undeniable that we have made progress compared to last year, even if some of the old failings are still present.

I think Radford has done enough to see out the third and final year of his contract but I would be unhappy if he was to be offered an extension before this time next year.

What we think is irrelevant anyway as Pearson has clearly decided Radford is the coach for the foreseeable future.

Good post, although we have to perform to the end in the top 8 and try and finish at least 6th IMO, once(if) we can't finish in the top 4, give some more gametime to the likes of Fash, HWT, Lancaster and Naughton.

However, we have still to hit the levels of achievement seen under the last coach. Not to mention that our owner clearly stated that just achieving the top 8 would NOT be seen as a success under his regime.

True but our owner seems to have a habit of changing his mind about lots of things.

I guess it is a bit sad that scraping into the top 8 is seen as an achievement.

We are about on par with when Gentle was in charge, it's now up to the players and Radford to make sure we kick on and improve on that and challenge for the top 4, with our current squad and signings we have real potential, but I've said and thought this many other times.

Well I hope the players are professional enough to realise that the season is not over until the end of the super eights. That being the case they should be going out to try and win every match and LR should be drilling this into them. I didn't buy a season pass just to watch an end of season party lasting 7 games.

Making the top 8 is [ian[/i achievement. Just not the season defining one we should be aiming for.

We still have 7 games to kick on and while I'd argue that we haven't got back to the level we were at under Gentle we have the potential to exceed it this season.

Let's face it - we are in a far better position now than I and many other fans were predicting for most of the season and even as recently as the last couple of weeks. No reason why we can't continue to exceed expectations even given our injury situation.

Are we? 6th in a 14 team league +cc final in 2013.
With a fading patched up Horne and our no.7 out for 1/3 of 2013 and was never really the same after his head injury, starting the season with a rookie winger & centre on the same side, rookie FB & SH for the last 8 games with zero SL exp. Ellis missed 16 SL games out of 29 (incl Playoffs) so to finish where we did AND reach the CC final was nothing short of a miracle. We then had the players giving up in the final game which took the edge off a progressive 2nd season under PG.

Radford has benefited from a set of established halves that have being fit pretty much all season, Ellis has missed a few games for sure but Watts, Paea and Mini have bolstered the fowards no end this season.
Given the squad we have I'm really dissapointed where we are, we've scored less points than all but one team in SL (the shower that is Wakey) so there's a relatively big difference from our performance/level in 2013 to this season despite only a potential one place differential in league position, we've hugely underperformed IMO.

If you define BAD defeats as not getting a spanking then yes you are correct. However a defeat against a team that has lost 16 games on the trot and completely out of their depth in this super league season, I think is a BAD defeat. A terrible defeat infact!

Have we nicked any games, we have really not deserved to win? Struggling to think of many, but we have lost plenty that we let slip and should've won, they for me are bad defeats too. The ones that got away. Being beaten fair and square by the better team is acceptable, throwing away games is not.

Several bad defeats over the course of the season for me.

At the start of the season i said getting into the eight would be decent considering and we have done. This season Radford has had good patches and some bad ones too with this team but it seems the good patches are becoming more frequent now so im hoping hes now finding a way of keep the team consistent. Apart from the Leeds second half we have not been battered though a lot of displays have been average to poor yet we still have managed to stay close to sides. We also had a fair few new players this season inc two new halfs and our talisman Ellis's injuries have bit just as hes been in awesome form. All things considering ill say that Radford has done above average and now has the next eight games to try and keep the consistency going that we now seem to have even if it means winning ugly. Next year with Pritchard, Taylor and hopefully a couple of top notch backs we then have to become a 4-6 placed team and Radford has to deliver this - if not he has to go.

After the shocking early part of the season we then enjoyed a really good run. This came to an end with the matches against Leeds (2), Catalans and Wakey away. Although disappointed that we lost them I was not surprised with the Leeds and Catalan results so for me the Wakey defeat was the hardest to accept. Since then we've got back on the horse and started winning consecutive matches. There seems to be a real togetherness in the team and I think they've a good chance of upsetting some of the big boys in the next 7 games. Lets just get behind them (LR included) and give them our total support. Any inquest can be held once the season is over.

The problem is Knocker that because we have just made the top eight some fans will see that as progress but as you have pointed out that since his appointment Radford has taken the club backwards despite his own squad and no major injury list which Peter Gentle also had to contend with.

Change the ing record. No-one is convinced by Radford and most supporters would prefer changes to the coaching team but it isn't going to happen now or before next season.

What did you make of the derby win? I noticed you had nothing to say about it.