No gloating pal, I need a rest after today.

Were not, believe me. I said tonight that those two teams are the worst that i have witnessed in this league so far this season and im sticking by that. Bookies pay for the night out again though which is good. Im getting used to this now. We wont make the playoffs without major changes and at this rate we could be a lot closer to the bottom 2 than a lot of people expect. With the signings we made during the off season i said we would struggle to make the top 4 but really didnt expect us to be this bad.

Watching Danny Hulme tonight was just like watching his dad all those years ago,same mannerisms,same enthusiasm,always backing up and encouraging the rest of the team. Had to be one of the quickest hat tricks ever!

Obviously there are positives and negatives.

Negatives:

- Shipping too many points.
- Short kick offs were the only real advantage they had over us, but they really took advantage of them. It's an underused tactic and today was obvious to see why.
- The semi comeback, the inability to hold on to the lead, the soft tries after good defensive work.

Positives:

+ Youngsters comfortably amongst the best players on the pitch. Hulme was great and Flynn was my MOM.
+ Some creative tries, neat little passes inside and good running from coyle and hulme.
+ Discipline was better, we were pinged for some stupid errors but it wasn't a dirty game from either team.
+ Dominant, and a second half performance where our defence was less shaky instead of more. Unfortunately for us, so was theirs.
+ Entertaining, uplifting, in front of a big healthy crowd.
+ Better than many expected after ridding ourselves of four players, those left behind really worked hard to reassure the fans that things were on track.
+ Logan Tomkins, worked harder in 80 minutes than his brother did in his whole time he was here. Looked like he relished the game, not like he was on a holiday.

So positives to take away, some negatives to work on. Fax do not look like a relegation side but then it's so tight in this division they have to buck their ideas up soon. We have to work on that defence, but we've got some real reasons to be happy today.

There are worse sides in the division mate, thought both teams shown up well in patches. Fax always look dangerous even if your own half you can score tries from anywhere. Penky always looks dangerous as does Black. Thought Holroyd played well in patches.

Ouch that was bad, real bad, we were terrible in defence and tbh this against the worst Widnes team I have seen since you came down to this level.
We hardly deserved our BP we only got it because your defence is nearly as bad as ours.
Two poor teams tonight, maybe you are writing this year off to clear out for SL?
As for us, we need to clear our coach out and soon!

Never, ever got why Fax fans rate Nash and proved it again. Pants 2nd row playing as an overweight slow centre... Always though that!

Benny at his club best again

Who needs Thackeray, wild, buzzin'?

In all seriousness that performance was very refreshing from the last couple of weeks and I hope it continues for the rest of the season but the Halifax performance is probably the worst I've seen them play in the last five years.

I don't understand why one or two of your posters have suggested that either team was shockingly poor. Our defence was not particularly good in the first half, true. But there was a lot of creativity in the tries. I'd write it off as sour grapes, but that doesn't ring true because you're not giving yourself any credit either.

We have things to work on, as I've outlined above, but your squad isn't particularly bad, I honestly think you'll eventually find some form and nestle in mid table and as for us, providing we don't have the dual reg turmoil we might actually make the play offs. Those short kick offs were devastating for us, we had some inexperienced players there, and the scoreline looks terrible but there are plenty of 30-28 games you don't think are weak so an extra 10 points here or there and it's a travesty?

Honestly, this is not the worst widnes side I've ever seen. It's not even close. We've beaten fev and sheffield, and we'll both I suspect be fine come the end of the season.

Funny how fax joking about us as mid table.They expect a franchise by a country mile been third bottom?

I think Messrs West and Long need not worry about the sides they assembled.

I dont think we are a bad side, just lack composure. Thought even against Leigh we showed that we can play but when we make a mistake our heads seem to drop. Last night was all about the 3 points and to restore a bit of confidence. We were bound to show a bit of nerves in the 2nd half after whats happened in the last three games. Hopefully we can kick on now and show a bit of form for the rest of the season.

Did all three Wigan lads play?

If so how did they do?

Great Result last night but I will stand by my opinion of what went on mid week.sacking 4 players to provoke a response from the remaining players isn't coaching.

Crosby was injured (concusion I think) but hoping to be back on Monday.

Mellor looked really good, he gets rid of the ball very quickly which was a big bonus playing 7. Backs up well and looked quite elusive. After probably only 1 session with the side things can only get better.

Tomkins, that lad is something special in the making. Put in a very long shift yesterday working hard in attack and defence. Scored 2 tries. He is very quick around the ruck (sometimes too quick for some) and causes defences all kinds of problems dragging markers all over the show. Very bright future.

No good having good attacking players if they ship some of the shambolic tries that they did last night.

Did anyone else notice that, bar Halifax's first set, it took 32 minutes for a set of six not to end in either a try or a drop out?



Some good attacking play at times from both sides - Mellor and Tomkins ran the show - but some of the defence on display was absolutely atrocious.

Under new management... Finnegan and l'Anson.
I thought that the team looked like they had some direction out there last night. Especially from l'Anson in attack. He was barking out instructions all night setting up plays.
Certainly the first few we scored looked like well worked plays.

It's interesting how people watch things differently. I thought Mellor looked okay, a little quiet if anything but not surprising considering he probably hasn't trained with the side yet.

For the game up at Barrow I would definitely consider dropping Ropati and sticking Grady over in that position. Defensively the guy is a liability.

As for Hulme... again a brilliant hat-trick which took some scoring too.
I'm happy Varks left the fax fans feeling embarrased for a different reason too.

Hmm, perhaps we can sack 4 players every week to keep everyone on their toes?

Mellor was steady and become more influential the longer the game went on, not much of him but he's a tough kid and has good hands.

Tomkins is excellent, he has a great engine on him and has very good hands and defence.

Crosby will be available on Monday after concussion.

And thats what it was, a total shambles. We are not in a false position in the league by any means. I knew we had recruited badly at the begining of the season but honestly didnt expect this. We are normally bad defensivly, i guess we accept that to some extent but i feel last nights performance was compareable to when Hull KR stuck 70 on us a few seasons back. I really fear for what Bradford will do to us on national tv. I think a good team in this division would have put 80 on us last night, luckily for us that wasnt Fev or Leigh away last night.

You don't half talk some shiiiiite florimo

Thought Nash was one of their best actually. We struggled to put him down and was too strong for our defenders on their last try. Too many Fax players didn't show enough desire to put their bodies on the line when defending their try line in the first half hour.
I'Anson was a different player and took control of our attack. Did all the organising and kicked very well. Pity that Fax decided the best way to stop him was by smacking him after he'd made a pass.
Hopefully Hulmey's injury isn't too bad as he's brought a freshness to the team like Craven did last season.

Im always worried when out coach agrees with me.

Out coach?


You sacking him already.

the way Leigh played today, you might have got more than a bonus point !