Fax Knight

Great effort from the team, especially the youngsters. You remove Hardaker and Hastings from Wigan and it would have been a hell of a lot closer. Those two injected that extra class and, in particular, creativity that we haven’t seen much of from the Knights so far this season. Let’s hope it start to appear when James has decided his on his best 17 and they are all fit and playing at their best.

We really miss Cockayne and Horne - those two were the difference in a hell of a lot of tight games. Need to get Brining and Stock fit again.

Unfortunately we were second best today by a considerable amount. To a team with only 15 fit players. Forwards out-muscled and a clueless attack. Apart from the interception we never looked like scoring. Add in a host of stupid penalties and it resulted in a very poor afternoon. The team is not firing at all at present.

Agree re: Kirmond. I know it's early days, but I'd like to see more offence from both first choice second rows a la Joe Batchelor. I like the look of Tyme Dow-Nikau - big and aggressive. Maybe he'd be great in the back row- though we're hardly short of options at present... Will Riley Dean be back at 6 for Toulouse, I wonder? Marsh does okay at 6, but I think he's much more effective at full-back. Riley also offers an alternative kicker to Brendan and will try the unpredictable. It won't always work as he's learning his trade, but when it does points will appear. Some interesting decision

I know Riley and he's a great lad. He was part of the all-conquering Siddal junior team along with Smithies & Holroyd (has a junior team ever won a Yorkshire Cup playing a year above their age group apart from them?). He's pretty quick, got a great step, pass and rugby brain. He's also very confident in his ability. He also used to be a great goal kicker at junior level - he'd spend hours practicing after training. He's also brave - anyone remember him knocking down a rampaging Seb Tai in his first Warrington game as a 17 year-old? He's obviously less experienced than Smith and is ver

I don't like to pick out people (and I know we are only three games in to the League) but there is a distinct lack of power, pace and guile. Teanby looked like the only forward who had any aggression. The forwards should all be running hard and getting us on the front-foot. Wallis had a go with a number of carries, but his inexperinece in defence cost us. He migth have a future, but it looks too soon for him at present. Mostly the backs looked leaden-footed and the lack of creativity from the halves was embarrassingly bad. At one point in the second half it looked like no-one had a cl

Watched him at eight years' old smashing lads in every tackle (fair, but hard). He plays just the same way now, only it's Super League players getting put on their backside and there are fewer tears from the oppostion (though I think Greg Bird might have shed a few). He's actually got great handling skills and sometimes played at 6 for his Siddal junior team. Him and Holroyd were always a cut above and I hope the latter gets over his injuries and has a simialr impact to Smithies in 2020. Credit to Siddal for developing players like them.

Morgan Smithies has been knocking people over since he was eight years old. My lad played in "that" Siddal junior team (the one that only ever got beaten twce in eight years) and I used to tell him to make as many tackles as Morgan....which he never managed, of course. So thats Smithies, Borough, Holroyd and Dean from that team who have all made their Super League debuts. Amazing. I remember once when some of the Siddal lads who also played a bit of Union (Smithies played Union a year up) went for some England RU Development squad selection when they were about 13 or 14. Smithies wasn't se

But we don't have a reserve team and numbers 27 onwards are not "our players" apart from the odd permanent signing like Baldwinson which is why RL in 2019 is a farce. It always (and probably always will be) a case of who has the most cash wins (with the odd exception like Salford and Koukash), but loaning and dual reg just doesn't do it for me. I used to love the A team games on a Saturday afternoon. It was great seeing an unknown Geoff Pryce ripping it up or seeing countless "A N Other's" having a go. If they did well, you signed them. Much better than todays' pick and mix when players ar

Well I certainly felt I got my money's worth yesterday. A strangely out-of-sorts Knights for the first 20 minutes seemed to get spurred into action when the Dewsbury 19 started dishing out his cheap shots, so his tactics definitely backfired. As fo the refs and linesmen - uttetly inept. If a trip is (quite rightly) worth 10 minutes then a punch is definitely a yellor or even a red. And if Ronan's tackle was a red then they'd be playing 6 a side by then end of a typical NRL game. Credit to Fordy in that whoever he brings in usually does a great job (Cam Smith looks a great prospect - what is

Seems to me that Brad Hey has fallen down the pecking order and that Jason Bass is seen as a winger with loan players filling this centre spot. Judah is fourth or even fifth choice winger when Robson & Chilton are fit again. Surely he must be considering his future? Is Benny ever going to return or simply call it a day and is Chilton going to play this season? Who’d be a coach??

I thought all the York 17 were fantastic today. Junior Vaivai must be up there with the Wolfpack's Ricky Leutele as the best centre in this Divison - such as shame he's not "ours", as players like him who beat men for fun and offlload to their winger at will can win you tight games on their own. He's the quality of player we need if this club is to continue to rise - Hull KR must have some flipping good centres if they can offord to loan him out. Let's hope Tony Smith wasn't watching today....

Apologies Shadow. - we posted pretty much the same thing but you beat me to it!!

The Knights were unlucky. Much the better team throughout and never behind until the last few minutes. What killed us were those immediate knock-on’s/ball losses on pretty much the first tackle directly after we scored on the first three occasions. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. Dire though Child’s and his team were, they can’t take the blame for that. Toulouse were pretty ordinary apart from when they were in our 20 metres when they came alive - and there were usually only there due to our errors. Never mind. Onwards and upwards.

So we had no Horne, Baldwinson, Scott, Jordan-Roberts, Dixon and Brining - bascially a first-choice pack. Plus three of our more creative, damaging backs missing in Cockayne, Robson and Mazive (yes, Judah does have the odd mistake in him, but offers a lot in attack) and people wonder why we might get thumped when we meet a proven Chanpionship team with good players on-song? Add in Peterson (who I like, but seems to be in-and-out) and young Chilton, (who hasn't even played this season) and your'e not far off a full team. Get most of that lot back and we'd give Fev a proper game. It's b

York have massively over-performed this season, but it was men against boys today. You can't take an undersized, patched up team (quite a few of whom had only played championship 1 or amateur rl until recently) and expect to win every week against teams of hardenend championship pros / ex-superleague players. We should be looking to next season and get some sponsors on board so that we sign the like of Chisholm on full-time contracts and build on what ha been a great season.

Tyler is a cracking lad. Big unit who trains in my gym in 'Fax. Ex-Siddal junior product who originally signed for Salford Academy and when they went bust, signed for the Rhinos.

I find the news about Edwards and Roche both strange and disappointing. Both are proven at York and are exactly what we need. I mean losing out to Newcastle Thunder???? Of the two, Roche is probably preferable as he was available on a long-term basis, but I guess we can;t compete with Mr Kear and his penchant for collecting players. The club need to start planning for next year - this one could well be the last for Benny, Graham and Tim.