Tough game to watch at times and certainly highlighted the gap between the top two and the rest . As regards springer it wouldn’t be so hard to swallow if he had been replaced with someone equally as good . If you actually break down the new look panthers it’s not that much different, springer, borough Hewitt gone , Robinson and rawsthorne injured for half the season , worthingtons all round game is good but 1 try all season isn’t enough . On the plus side McComb as played well and looks a threat , Liam Harris as played well at times and Murray is steady but we really need some oomph in our forwards .

I think Grix was unwise to have both Borough and Hewitt in the starting 17 at the start of the year with the threat of them being recalled always being there. I do wonder what 'really' is has been the turning point for Fev to be so much better than us on the field. There is a considerable gap. They had the season a couple of years back when they lost to Toronto with the rent-a-squad farce but the gulf is certainly wider. With Leigh coming down, - might be more of the same running big, quality squads that no one can realistically compete with. If we then revert to the 2 x 10 for superleague then it's anyone's guess.

Not sure if Eliott would have made a difference today but certainly we need another 2 props and another big second-rower as neither Garside of Kavanagh are of that ilk. Not much to be made of it this season but would actually love to hear about where both Rawsthorne and Jones are. Absolute zero comms about either of them. Perhaps the lads doing the media stream can ask Grxy at some point!

What you see on the pitch is often an extension from off the pitch.
The facts are Fev are a stronger club than us in this area as well.
Bigger home support.
Owning their ground.
Revenues from their own clubhouse and bar.
MC and co with their financial input and support.
All these areas add up to bigger and better input and output streams.
Wether we like to think so or not they are the bigger club.

Even with Springer still onboard it wouldn’t have altered Fev’s dominance in the middle.
Seems to me Fax are going with what they have for this year and concentrating on signing players for next season.

Sadly completely agree with this - end result being we're competing against a better quality squad at Featherstone and even more important at this time of the season 9ne 50% bigger than ours allowing them to rotate players and drop those not performing - Fax on the other hand are now having to go with what's left each week - knackered or not. I still believe a fully fit Fax first 17 would be competitive - even against Fev - admittedly I'm including Borough and Hewitt in this - we just don't have the depth of squad the top 2 have to remain a genuine contender for promotion.

Yes you’re right however when fax played Toulouse/ fev earlier in the season we had springer Hewitt bourouh all of borderline of super league ilk and we were more competitive . Both the springer and the bourouh one irritate me the most , I have no problem with Grix letting springer go but I think there should of been a replacement already waiting or they would agree he could go at the end of the season, our pack is light and a few more injuries or covid related problems and we’ ll really struggle . Bourouh as played about 40 mins for Wigan since he’s gone and not been in the last two squads , the loan agreement is supposed to benefit both clubs and the player , if lamm is picking shorrocks ahead of him he clearly doesn’t trust or rate him would have made more sense to see his time out with us before a move to Salford .

As regards yesterday’s game regardless who we are playing silly penalties and dropping the ball as got to stop its not Grix it’s the players who’ve got to up their game , perfect day for rugby and constant handling errors is not acceptable.

For next season to be competitive at the highest level we need a couple of props a quality loose forward and a winger to replace McGrath/ rawsthorne who aren’t good enough, and that’s at least .

There were a lot of fans who wanted to attribute Fev's success in 2019 and indeed in previous years almost solely to DR but a few of us said repeatedly that was a red herring, it did mean that we didn't have to bother running with such a big squad but we weren't really bringing in players who were much better than the ones we had.

I do think the overall standards in the division have slipped a little since Covid though.

There were a lot of fans who were spot on!

Exactly my point about concentrating on next season because even with the likes of Springer, Hewitt and Borough the current squad were still not good enough.
This equates to being 6 or 7 (maybe even more) good quality players short to really compete this year and we are not going to get them in before the playoffs to make up the difference.
I do think we will strengthen somewhat for next year but I can't see us having the financial clout to fill all the gaps in one go so it will still be work in progress.
That's the down side should we finish third, anything less that that next year will be seen as a step backwards.

Even thou not completely unexpected that result is still hard to take and even harder to have watched. Like as already been said fev looked a far bigger side than us even in the warm up i mentioned this to a fev fan in front of me and he just laughed he must of know what was coming. To be fair despite a lot of errors we looked like we could trouble fev with the ball and scored some well taken tries. Woodburnhall, salty, mcomb, and worthington can all take credit for there performances in defeat. Moores when he came on was a handful and only worthington down that side looked like he could tackle him. I thought grix had a shocker not dealing with 2 restarts that both led to tries and throwing a shocking pass along the floor which went straight to gale who went 90 meters to score. And as been said we lack fire power up front and this as become more of a issue as the season as gone along and not been addressed. I wonder what simon thought watching springer setting up 2 tries carrying the ball strongly and strong in defence yes he gave away 1 penaltie but i would take that any day of the week for what you get in return the type of punch that we are lacking and he did longer minutes too. He is good enough for fev who are far better then us but not good enough for us work that one out. We will have our hands full at Whitehaven next week lets just hope we can find a way to win.