71 replies to this topic

[Little Lion Man]

I expect a close game against Keighley and more than ever it is vital to get a good start. From my reckoning, we have only scored first in two of the nine games this season against championship teams (two in the NR cup and seven in he league). It is almost like playing with a handicap! With Keighley only conceding around 15 points per game in the league so far this year we can do without being behind early on. Steve McCormack said earlier in the season we need play for the full 80 minutes, seems we still need some work on the first 10 when both sides are fresh.

[Bartholemew Smythe]

We are never going to get credit off any fans fron other clubs this season. unless we roll over and let them tickle our bellies. lets face it every team we've played we've heard the same excuses. Its not our strongest team or we've got players out. makes me laugh. Its never a fact that we are a good side.

makes me laugh how bad ppl think we are.

It was nt like that on Good Friday was it.

[Bryce]

You must have mis-read that post as "we expect to win every game and finish clear winners of the Championship".

Sadly we know we're not that good, but we deserve more credit than we get. Please also note that if (and yes, we realise that's a big "if") we win tomorrow night that we will go level on points with the team that beat us on good Friday.

[Bryce]

Back to the game. According to the website Morty is still out so Doddy should be starting. Forster also picked up an injury and will be missing.

R.Hawkyard
Dodd
Higson
Armstrong
Penny
Ainscough
Watson
Riley
Smith
Meekin
Cunniffe
D.Hawkyard
I'Anson

Ashall
Morrison
Walker
Mills

Steve may have to shake things up so the team will posisbly be different to that, again with Reay, Gorski, Clarke, Foxen Holland, McConnell and Hale all still available as far as I am aware. See you all there tomorrow!

[PaulT]

I think Mills will start. He played a bit better against Hunslet, so lets hope he continues on that path.

[PhillH]

Its an unusual situation with the dual-reg players, as the Lions don't normally play earlier in the week than the Super League games. This might impact their availability.

Meekin didn't even feature among the substitutes at Hunslet. The likelihood is that Forster's quad injury will result in Meekin getting a chance off the bench tonight, but it would be a surprise if he went from being left out altogether to a starting spot 4 days later.

I think the bench has been a little too forwards-orientated recently and would like to see some cover for the three quarters.

The weather is set to be wet, I expect a closely fought game that could easily go either way - a key factor will be discipline.

[Dano]

Hopefully this link will have live radio coverage from tonight

http://www.jam-radio.co.uk/

Dan

[Bryce]

Good 1st half. No idea what happened in the 2nd. Keighley looked good and defended very well, but when it's 4-4 in the 1st and 32-0 in the 2nd, there's something not right from the Lions.

[duffymoon]

Desperately disappointing second half performance after performing so well playing up the hill in the opening forty minutes.Keighleys defensive effort was magnificent in the first half restricting us to Gavin Dodds solitary score when in truth the amount of possession we had warranted more points,shame IAnsons try was chalked off as it looked marginal from where we were stood.Second half we never got going,mistakes galore and a battering in the penalty count ensured that the home side were gifted good field position on numerous occasions and they made us pay.How many times did we knock the ball down on the last tackle when the ball receiver looked to be covered? think it will be difficult to achieve a play off spot after tonight's result,just a shame we could perform for the full eighty minutes.

[PhillH]

Talk about a game of 2 halves!

Very solid first half - which followed the script of a very tight game to the letter.

After the break things started badly and got rapidly worse.

It was similar to the number of basic errors made in the 2nd half against York (i.e. pretty much a mistake every set), only this time the opposition were good enough to take fullest advantage.

Lots of poor defence on show but the most annoying of all has to be Mr Dodd yet again flying randomly out of the line and allowing the opposition the easiest of easy walk-ins, at a time when a comeback was still not totally out of the question. Its time he learned not to do that, it really is.

[HOLYMOLY]

Tight first half which had me worried for the second playing up the slope

You did make a lot of errors in the second half and we took full advantage.

Our defence was once again top drawer which seemed to frustrate some of your lads,hence the penaltys you gave away

Thought the score flatered us as it was only the last 10 mins we took control

Anyway,Keighley and Swinton are punching above their weight this season and long may it continue

[lions4eva]

Tight first half which had me worried for the second playing up the slope

You did make a lot of errors in the second half and we took full advantage.

Our defence was once again top drawer which seemed to frustrate some of your lads,hence the penaltys you gave away

Thought the score flatered us as it was only the last 10 mins we took control

Anyway,Keighley and Swinton are punching above their weight this season and long may it continue

Well said, we didn't do ourselves any justice this evening. Keighley were by far the better side and deserved the victory. They have some top class forwards who punched holes in our defence consistently and they had a superior offload game.

Some things confused me this evening with our lads. Why did Mills play again? He's rank average, enough said. Also why are we flying out of the line on the last tackle going for interceptions all the time, we gave them repeat sets far too often from failed intercepts or misjudged ball steals. Basic. If Keighley did have one area where they seemed weak, it was their kicking game, so why not let them force the issue on the last rather than fly brainlessly out of the line.

25 sets V 6 sets in the second half, not helped by the sh*te with the whistle, but still shows our discipline is a big issue.

My next point may upset a few people but i'm putting it out there to see if anyone is of the same mindset. Karl Ashall to me seems a bit out of his depth, i cant fault his endeavour or attitude, but he is making very poor decisions at crucial times, we look far more lost with him at 9 than smithy. Controversial i know, but its just my opinion.

We tackled very well first half, special mention to D Hawkyard and I'anson on that front, superb.

Looking forward to Fax, hoping for improved discipline and a tough encounter up front.

[Furryenzo]

I dont think ashalls out of his depth, I think smithy has simply raised his game this year, hes always been a great player for us but hes become a crucial figure in our game plan and tactics. Ashall doesnt seem to have improved much on last year, but hes still a very young lad and clearly a great talent, we would be stupid not to continue giving him game time.

[PhillH]

Ashall did make quite a few errors, a couple of which were pretty inexcusable, but there have been other games where he has played much better. A lovely inventive chip over the top and regather at Hunslet only last Sunday showed real quality. His career is at a bit of a crossroads. I have lost count of the number of times he has looked very dispirited on his way back to the bench after relatively short spells on the pitch this season. In my opinion the root cause of his problems at the moment is putting himself under pressure to make an immediate big impact - therefore always looking to do something flashy even if the circumstances of the game don't call for it. I think he is getting frustrated at going onto the field knowing the probability is he will only be given a maximum of 20 minutes, even if he plays really well. He's at an age and stature now where he wants to be out there for 80 minutes.

Competition for places is generally a positive thing, but some aspects of it need very skilful man management to avoid a negative impact on performance of some of the players. Particularly so whilst the club has no reserve side to use for the guys currently on the fringe to keep fit and be given a chance to persuade the coach through their performances on the pitch that they could do a job for him in the first team.

Neil Holland was blatantly miles off match fitness, was badly off the pace and it cost at least one try from a very weak tackle, but in the circumstances of not having played for the best part of 2 months its hardly surprising.

The most disappointing thing was how quite a few raised the white flag towards the end and the Cougars were breaking through at will, particularly through the Lions left side defence.

Cuniffe also showed his bad side as a poor disciplined penalty machine. I feel Gorski has been hard done by this season and would give him a run of a few games.

[Furryenzo]

I also think Tom Armstrong had an absolute shocker yesterday and was at fault for a number of their tries, being drawn in to often and then the reverse. However Cunniffe and Armstrong are usually our best performers so im sure we can just call it a bad day at the office, I was personally under no illusions that we could win that game, im not going to lie at 4-4 I was starting to believe but in the end the scoreline I was expecting came through, for a semi-professional side to play twice in 4 days and travel up to keighley on a thursday night after a week at work, to play a top performing side after they've had a 2 week rest was never going to be easy, and to be honest I think as solid as we were in the first half alot of that came down to keighley making errors in good positions probably due to being a bit ring rusty. But we need to analyse that performance and keep improving!

[bigtony]

Ashall did make quite a few errors, a couple of which were pretty inexcusable, but there have been other games where he has played much better. A lovely inventive chip over the top and regather at Hunslet only last Sunday showed real quality. His career is at a bit of a crossroads. I have lost count of the number of times he has looked very dispirited on his way back to the bench after relatively short spells on the pitch this season. In my opinion the root cause of his problems at the moment is putting himself under pressure to make an immediate big impact - therefore always looking to do something flashy even if the circumstances of the game don't call for it. I think he is getting frustrated at going onto the field knowing the probability is he will only be given a maximum of 20 minutes, even if he plays really well. He's at an age and stature now where he wants to be out there for 80 minutes.

Competition for places is generally a positive thing, but some aspects of it need very skilful man management to avoid a negative impact on performance of some of the players. Particularly so whilst the club has no reserve side to use for the guys currently on the fringe to keep fit and be given a chance to persuade the coach through their performances on the pitch that they could do a job for him in the first team.

Neil Holland was blatantly miles off match fitness, was badly off the pace and it cost at least one try from a very weak tackle, but in the circumstances of not having played for the best part of 2 months its hardly surprising.

The most disappointing thing was how quite a few raised the white flag towards the end and the Cougars were breaking through at will, particularly through the Lions left side defence.

Cuniffe also showed his bad side as a poor disciplined penalty machine. I feel Gorski has been hard done by this season and would give him a run of a few games.

This is the downside of having DR players in your team, i said in another topic on here this is the penalty you get with relying to much into this system your own players miss out for weeks on end and when u need them they are not match fit

[mark richardson]

The upside being that in the previous FOUR fixture we played really well ...
Sport and life in general shows our short memories! Drop dale cunniffe our best forward for a season and half running his blood to water giving his all ? Ridiculous but the sort of thing you come to expect. You make mistakes and get highlighted when youre involved in so much.
The whole of our division relies on dual regs and loan players. We arent alone. We just have to take the negatives with the positives.

[Mr Magoo]

Massive disappointment Thursday and you can't blame it all on the man in the middle for that performance. All though some of the decisions beggared belief!

Apart from the first half, when we kept up with the game. Then came the worst second half, there is no other word for it they came out and bullied us and to make sure we lost, we started throwing the ball in the stands, knocking on, giving penalty's away most of which where on the 5th tackle and missed tackles. Wondering out of position, kicking anywhere.

I left with 5 mins to go with the score reading 20 - 4, by the time I got to the car it was 36 - 4!!!!
I really thought we would give them a game, not roll over and surrender, you can't get away with that sought of performance not in this league. I feel sorry for the fans who went to Keighley and had to watch that performance. From 1 -17 were poor, Keighley are not a good team but we made them look great.

Sorry that match just wound me up, which is rare.

Come on you Lions.

[HOLYMOLY]

Keighley are not a good team but we made them look great.

Wish i had a pound for everytime that was said

[Bryce]

And all those Dewsbury fans saying it as well?

Keighley were good, we made them look better than they were due to our poor 2nd half defence. Come on an even 4-4 and then a 32 - 0 2nd, it wasnt just Keighley upping their game, Swinton were ill disciplined and generally poor.