There are plenty of excuses for not putting on 100%, and I think we could've won if we'd cut out a few stupid errors. Like using the overlap correctly.

Didn't look down to fatigue to me, just some dumb rugby (Doran never fails), some daft penalties and failure to take chances when they came your way.

Vikings 4 ever sums up the game really well.I think once we get everyone fit onto the Park and start to gel, i think we will be a force.We missed a big front rower like Haggerty who would punch holes up the middle.Hopefully Heckenberg will do that once fit.His stats are impressive on average yards made, so i am looking forward to seeing him play.We need to complete our sets more often, and the kicking game needs to improve.

He does fail at playing the dumb rugby quite often. He's been excellent for us this season and has stood up well during the injury crisis.
Didn't really notice anything too bad from Doran the other night either considering the constant sillyness going on in the tackle whenever he and Gannon were put to ground. In fact I thought they were restrained.
Not sure he can be can be blamed for being tackled when he and Webster made the break either.. Webster came back inside after giving it Doran and it made sense to me for him to look for more support.. He was never going to make the line himself.
By the same token.. Dave Allen's attempted pass to Flynn was worth a shot to. If it had come off it was a certain try and fair play to Allen for trying something a bit different.

To be fair.. I think he has a point.. Fev certainly didn't look a top of the table team on the performance of Friday night and to suggest otherwise would be delusional. They currently find themselves in top spot and for the rest of the season just gone they might have looked like the Australian Test side but on the evidence of the other night they did look very ordinary.
I was expecting something different to back up your league position but I was gutted not to have come away with the points after fearing a landslide against us and was disappointed that an error strewn performance from Widnes gifted you the win.

You've obviously been firing on all cylinders coming into this match and I'm not sure that the tragic circumstances of the last week might have had an impact.

As for the dirty bit.. I'd argue that they weren't... Leahy did his best not to talk to the Fev players despite awarding quite a few penalties for holding down and offsides. When he eventually did send a player off, deservedly, it was almost like he thought that had wiped the disciplinary count away for Fev and they were allowed to get away with two more incidents which equally could have seen the player sit out 10 minutes. The first involving Ainscough and the second involving Doran.
Featherstone worked out that they could get away with a fair bit with that Ref and played according to that level.. the problem was that our players didn't and let tackled players spring up and lay on the ground like upside down comatose sharks when tackled themselves.

As for the away fans.. superb most of them.. a few seemed intent on starting a riot at the end walking down the stairwell.. but generally.. they were okay.

I have just watched the dvd and to be honest Leahy got most of the calls spot on, it was a propa rugby league arm wrestle and great game. I think Rovers have been badly effected by the events of last week but Widnes looked a very strong team. The decision at the end to give Rovers the penalty at the scrum was spot on, he warned Widnes once that they were packing down without a loose forward, so they then went and packed down again without a loose he was nowhere near the scrum. Dont know who your loose forward was but blame him not the ref, brainless and stupid it was

Harsh decision IMO. I can see Widnes packed down originally without a LF, and Leahy pointed this out. However, Gerrard was on his way to the scrum to pack down, but Leahy called the scrum to be formed for the second time before he got there and you put the ball in, imo Leahy could and should have waited around 1 or 2 seconds to allow Gerrard to make it to the scrum. He was literally a few yard away making his way to pack down.


THE HOOF

I can't read anywhere where anyone has suggested that Chris. We found Widnes hard to beat on friday. We've done the fancy stuff, the subliminal stuff and the outrageous stuff at times this season so far. On Friday we had to grind out a result and find a way to beat the Vikings - which we did - just! Sometimes when a team is begining to establish a run together, other teams raise their game because they are the team to catch as were Barrow last season, and IMO will still be this season. Widnes were hard, and I'll repeat, the best team we've played so far this year - by a "country mile"!!!!!

We had to dig deeper than we've done at any time in the league this year. But we did.

But I'm sort of getting used to the criticism now - "we're cheats", "we're not good enough", "we're not top of the table quality", "we're lucky", "the ref is on our side" etc etc. Again it's something I'm happy to live with as long as the run continues. However, I am under no illusion we're a defeat away from reality - and that will come eventually this season.
But for now at least I'm happy with the fact my team are so far the most consistent of the championship sides, have scored the most points, have the best points diff have a straight eight start to the season. I'm not sure what else could be done to warrant being considered 'deserved' top of the league so far.

As I said, we might lose our next five and then you'll be proven correct eh??

But just to bear our the comment - how would you define a team that tops the table and has the league results fev have -[u SO FAR!![/u I'm mindful not to get into any Callandesk bowlocks here! I've watched rovers for far too many years to predict world domination!!

Keep smiling chaps

Robin.

That's when you play the mighty leythers

aye, happen!!



We haven't beaten Toulouse yet eh???



One hurdle at a time!





I'm lovin it for the mo tho!! I've seen enough of the cak days - it's nice to have a bowl of the good stuff for a change!

Enough Zappa for now - now it's the Stone roses - I love Bank Holidays since I took the community role on! Sod shifts at the Happy factory.

We get this attitude every time we win a game – every time, every season!

There’s just the one fan on here who has said this about Fev, and he’s admitted to being bitter. I’ve seen far worse written about Widnes, by Fev fans, on their Total RL board.

You deserved your win and you’re the best team we’ve played so far. I was just happy that, despite a disjointed performance and a weak looking pack, we aren’t that far of the best in the league. When we get a few more bodies back we will be even better. Our youth are also looking good too. So I left the ground far from bitter.

Actually it as WVRL Matt that brought it up and Chris B who thought he may well have the point and agreed with most of what Matt had written, tho I accept this is only the opinions of 2 people! However, if written by 2 or 52, I have recourse to counter their comments, even if they are in a substantial minority and don't represent the majority of fans. - I don't accept the BNP. Even tho they are a minority I will speak against them - if this is a suitable analogy!

We're not used to being top Pepe!! It's been a while so when I read criticism, I'm quick to react, especially if I believe it's misplaced!

You shouldn't be bitter. I'm expecting Widnes to be in the mix at the end of the season.

As far as I could see, Chris was merely agreeing with WVRL Matt’s assumption that Fev are not a [i‘top of the table team’[/i. I didn’t see him back up his cheat allegations etc. That is purely a matter of opinion. We have played both Barrow and Halifax at home this season and both looked strong and skillful. The Championship is not decided in early May, so who is to say that either Chris or Matt are wrong to express that opinion?

I agree that the rest of Matt’s post was silly, and doesn’t show Widnes fans’s in the best light, but it seems that several of the Fev fans are now condemning Widnes fans on their Total RL board on just this one post. This is the problem with some messageboard users; they are completely unable to keep things in perspective.

I agree about the BNP. They are absolute scum, and really not worth bringing up in a conversation about RL.


I’m quite happy seeing Fev at the top. They are a great old club, like ours. I’d prefer that it was us up their, but that’s sport for you. Perhaps we are similar in the way we both react to perceived unfairness which is written on these boards, but we must keep things in perspective.


Like I said at the end of my last post- I walked away from that game far from being bitter.

I was frustrated at the end of the game but i have to pay respect to Fev on how they played under the circumstances. They controlled the speed of the game very well and the kicking game was better than ours. We spilled to much ball in key positions of the field and on the night the score was deserved for Fev. When we get some consistency player wise we'll be right.

Netherton was busy and i was angry that Toa didnt see more ball as he was to much to handle for the young Fev centre.

Big games coming up which we need to win though before we lose touch with Fev and Leigh.

i would have thought a win v leigh is a must or the top two will be all but out of touch.
However, as pepe pointed out, there's nowt for being top in may or even august.
All the final positions determines is the route through the play offs! By then, the widnes team could well be a lot more settled and consistency should have been addressed for a real go in the play offs.
Fev finished 6th last year and almost made it to the GF!

Too late for that. They're a far better prospect this year than Widnes or Fax that's for sure.

There's nothing bitter about my post Rob...
I think if you re-read it you will see that I agree with WVRL Matt on one issue which is that I thought Fev looked ordinary on Friday night. I certainly didn't agree with the cheating bit. I didn't comment on the rest of the season as I haven't otherwise seen you play.
On the back of your league position and in terms of where we are currently with our squad I was expecting to take a battering...
That didn't happen and an error strewn Widnes performance was nearly capable of taking the points.
In the past few seasons we have seen a few teams turn up with the wind in their sails and the difference with how they played compared to Fev is noticeable. Fax, Barrow, Cas, Hull Kr all played a lightning quick game with forwards that came to smash us wily halfbacks that broke our line repeatedly and I think if any of them had played against us on Friday night we would have taken the hammering I expected.
If you want to argue that you didn't look ordinary, that you looked a classy outfit and that your performance was comparable to any of the top teams from past seasons then please feel free. You need to to justify your bitter comment.

I would/couldn't justify that it was a champagne performance on friday - but nowhere have I done that!
Many of us predicted our first loss on friday and if you check my comments on the Totalrl site, you will see that I predicted a Widnes BP in a hard fought encounter - I added, Widnes have too many good players to be a poor team. For once, I called it correctly.

My angst was about the initial comment that we weren't a top of the table side and your agreement with that. Yes, on fridays performance we didn't pay the fluent stuff we've seen hitherto this season, but to base the comment on Friday's performance that dismissed what went off before is narrow minded and analytically poor in my opinion.

Like I asked in the post you quoted - what more would Fev have had to have done in their 8 games to be worthy of the 'derserved top of the league' comment???

Bitter?? My only bitterness is towards the RFL mate, not you, not widnes and certainly not your fans!! You don't know me, if you did - you would know that!

Time for a group hug folks

Just because your poo dont drag us with you Rich

I'm not really interested in what went before. You are only as good as your last game as the saying goes. Fax were fairly immense for most of last season but look what happened.
My agreement with Matt in part was that on that one performance you did not look like the amazing team that your results otherwise suggest. That is why I am on the Widnes board talking about the game involving Widnes and not on the Fev board talking about the season so far. I can talk about what I know and what I know is that you did not look a patch on teams that have gone before you to lead this division in that one game.
I can't discuss how you have been up to this point because I don't know and tbh don't really care. As I said you might have been playing like a touring Australian test side... I'm not sure, but on Friday we held you to a rather tepid 9 points despite a lacklustre performance from ourselves.

No one can argue that you aren't a top of the table team because you are top of the table... performance wise it just didn't seem like it on Friday night.



I wasn't calling you bitter mate.. I was referring to you calling me bitter about the loss. I do know you a little from these boards and I also know you from the Total RL site under your other guise.. you appear an alright lad........
When you're not gloating about nicking some of our best players that is..






I'm not having a dig at Fev... all the best to them. They've built a good side and are riding their crest. I look forward to travelling to Post Office road later on in the season.

We're bound together by a little thing called the league table. Hell, you've lost three at home! In fact, the only thing keeping your visors free of crap is the daft bonus point scheme, otherwise you'd have our poop tube in your mush.

Stockport Sid - over and out.

I love the bonus points because we are above Fax.

Serious some of our losses could have gone either way.If we did win then we be closer to fev.

Edited for accuracy

Ok i will go along with your edited version.