Why is Lilley getting a free pass for his display yesterday? We conceded two tries because of his errors.

His c0ck up at the end that led to the winning try had an air of inevitability about it didn't it?



Nobody had a good game yesterday except maybe Crossley.

Kear says we were "old manned"--that's not good enough when you are chasing certain promotion as opposed to an end of season bun fight.It really boils down to the same thing,even when we have been winning,NO ORGANISATION in the middle and no,or very little, BIFF up front.Look what's happened to Salford when they have added a bit of quality in the middle through the signing of hastings,different team.I think Lilley has the quality but we need direction and we are still not winning the battle up front,unless you do that combined with the ability to control things when in possession,then you are gonna struggle.It's gonna be hard from here,but we have the players to beat Workington next time if they are properly LED.Just my opinion.

You are correct with that comment.

I predicted that we would go sign him and I like him but he also had a very poor game.

with Leeds signing the supposedly whiz kid from Scottish RU - Ex Castleford plus the Papua half for next year I see no way back for Lilley to Leeds so he could be available to stay with us. If that is the case I would put Lilley as having the most potential as our best half slightly ahead of Kear - but different styles. Chizzy comes third and I don't see him now as long term.



I hadn't thought about the continual mix of hookers and a good point made above. What do people think of our young hooker on loan at Cas? Should we be looking at him now for long term in the way I have said about Keys and Lilley. Flannagan probably only has next year left. Do we give the young hooker a year out like Leeds have done with Lilley to mature a bit or is he ready come next February?

It is a fine line playing too many youngsters or too many older players and getting the mix just right.

Thing is, anyone who knows anything about rugby league could have told you that was what sort of game it was going to be. Wilkes 38, FuiFui MoiMoi 38, Penkywicz 35. Its obvious what it's going its be like. So why did he choose the line up he did.



I think Kear is the best signing we've made and i don't want to sound like i'm bagging him, but this season seems to be mirroring Jimmys first full season. Different HB combinations every week. Trying to fit certain players in the squad and swapping half the team to accomdate him. Coasting along beating teams we're better than. As soon as we come up against a team that gives us a bit back, we fold. We've had 3 real tests this year and only won once and even that was lucky. York at home with a chance to effectively seal promotion and we were 24-0 down after 20 mins (how that happened was a disgrace, and again, questionable tactics from Kear filling the bench with four big men, in sweltering heat against the most expansive team in the league. We had no plan B) and again yesterday, against a rough tough older side, he goes with possibly the lightest bench ever seen with no size at all.



I still believe Kear will get us promotipn via the play-offs with only Workington posing a threat. We'll be at home and surely this time we will choose the right line up and know what to expect and have a competent ref to offer a little protection. Their front row has a combined age of 111, have Crossley, Bustin, Peltier and Green running at them, they won't have the energy to bully us. Unfortunately yesterday we had a winger and kirk running at them once Crossley and Green went off.

Agree in part, but Keyes was the 3rd player to take a shot at goal when asking him to take that penalty thats no fault of his at all. Plus asking him to come into games bit part I think is a bit naff, Keyes has been our most consistent half before his knock but I think he will fall foul of the Lilley deal and Chisholm wont be dropped. Massively agree Kear got it wrong for me end of a lot of that has to lay at his feet. It all has a feel of million pound game/Fev game too much. A completely different side and coach yet same struggles in big games seems to be a massive cloud over the team in massive games that we cant get up for. This is something I certainly didn't expect under Kear

Better for Kear to make this mistake now than in a playoff game I suppose, that's the only positive I can get from yesterday. Oh, and we can all stop overanalysing the points difference now because it's irrelevant

Actually it isn't.......... if York don't beat Workington in their next game...

If York destroy Workington,that really is a reality check.



York are much more fluid than us imo

In attack I'd say a lot of teams are more fluid than us. In recent games I've been far more impressed with how the likes of Hunslet and Newcastle move the ball than us. If we had that level of organisation we'd score loads.

You mean that game where Workington are likely to have players serving suspensions for offences against us where Ref took easy option and put them on report #coudn't make it up!

Won’t they be suspended for the games after that? The disciplinary won’t sit for before then for league 1 will it?



If so then hopefully the ref forgets to send his report in as happened in favour of York before they played us.



It really was amateur hour yesterday.

Who's to say that Workington will make the playoffs. Their final games are York (H), Thunder (A), London (H) & Doncaster (A). I'd say they'll have it easy against 1 of those teams. If they lose a couple of their games they may be pushed out of the playoff places.



Wishful thinking...

You know every now and again you get a reality check at just how far we've fallen?



We're discussing being scared of coming up against Workington.

On a related point I think the players need a reality check and fast. I genuinely think there is an assumption amongst a few that we are the Bulls and we are too good for this league so we will just turn up and do the business and yet continually we have failed to do so in the Championship and League 1. Maybe I'm being too harsh and it's the "pressure" of expectation, but its the only thing I can think of as to why we've folded in the vast majority of important games since 2015 despite the squad changing frequently



On Kear, can't remember if it was on here or elsewhere, but someone said he thrives on being the underdog. Is this the first time in his career he's been expected to win something?

I would say that's been an attitude for far too many years, you'd think the club would have learned by now.

I don't think we should be afraid of any team in this league, just ourselves and the lack of mental approach to some of the games.

I know one player who doesn’t have that attitude and knows you have to give everything to get the rewards you want

That’s evident in his performances. Not just that the consistency of said performances.

It wasn't [ithat[/i long ago...

Championship 1994/95 Sun Feb 5th Workington Town 32 Bradford Northern 14



Don't look now but we also lost away to Oldham that year.

Yesterday he came off after about 70 minutes, he told me he was trying to get off for about 15 minutes before he did, he was struggling with his shoulder that he injured at North Wales.

Well at least he's got a couple of weeks to rest up now. I'd actually be tempted to rest him for the Keighley / West Wales games and get him fresh for the back end of the season.

Plays like 10 men

He was pretty distraught last night and still is.

He knows the implications if we don’t get promoted. If we go up he’s probably going full time, if we don’t he will probably stay on his part time contract next season. But he knows it’s not just about his selfish reasons, first and foremost he wants to be a part of the club moving back up, end of the day he’s been a fan a lot longer than he’s been a player

It's all Lilley's fault, we didn't need him in the halves and he can't tackle.



We had three half backs on the park and looked bloody clueless, Workington had one pulling all the strings and punched holes in us all day long.