2Cents

Shocking display by the Raiders.

My Mother told me "If you've nothing good to say, don't say anything at all" - so my games comments are.............

Not all Bulls fans blamed the ref. one comment (out of 200 complaining posts) on their FB said, 'Sack the players, sack the board and sack the Coach'.

I'm totally out of breathe now reading that paragraph with no sentences or full stops...phew...

OMG! What a great game! A terrific atmosphere and fantastic vocal support for the Raiders. 2460 inc. plenty of Bulls fans. Don't know who was selected MOM but every single Raider played their heart out. Joe Bullock gives us that extra punch as evidenced by his match-winning try. Walker couldn't kick so Johnston had to do most of the kicking and he did a great job. Bulls FB is going berserk that they lost the game.

A winning line-up could be: Cresswell. Bulman. Toal. Teare. Ritson. Bishop. Johnston. T.Walker. Wood. Silva. Robson. Costello. B. Walker. Subs. Smith. Bullock. Emslie. Brown. Stack, King injured. Possibly Broadbent too.

Huge boost having Joe back for this game and rest of the season. Will be a big crowd Sunday and it should be a heck of a game.

Our wingers Bulman (injured) and Ritson have scored 20 tries or more between them, but so have the Bulls wingers Okunbar and Armitage, 19 tries, PLUS they have ex-Saints super-league centres Blake and Hurrell inside them - what a back-line! We'll have to be at our defensive best to stop those 4 guys alone....

Team selection seemed to work quite well,.....58 - 0. OMG! 10 tries inc. 8 tries for the newly formed back-line, inc. 5 for veterans Toal and Shaw. WOW! Tee had a blinder according to Radio Cumbria - any chance of a video recording of the game?

Johnston's kicking game is his strength and he's usually good at that. But unlike our opponents halves he rarely breaks through the defensive line himself or create breaks for others. Samut was better at that than Johnstone.

We don't have any urgency in our play until we get behind. Good effort from mid-way through the 2nd half, but that was too late, given we were 18 points behind. We're not the same team without Ryan King. Yes, Bulman scored a hat-trick, but his fumble under a high ball let Sheffield score their 2nd try. 2 more 'Swiss-cheese' tries after the break sealed the game for them. Too many errors - Josh Wood had 2 knock-ons and a forward pass in the 1st 15 mins. 3 teams breathing down our neck now for 6th place. A MUST win at Hunslet now to have any chance of the play-offs.

A visiting fan (ie: Featherstone) would travel for 5-6 hours R/T, pay for petrol and food enroute plus £18 entrance and a couple of beers = £50 approx. per person - versus stay at home all day and the whole family can watch for £5. It's a no brainer if ever I saw one!

On a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon, 1st home game in 5-weeks, sitting in 4th place, playing an attractive team, yet the attendance was only 1684, including probably 150 visiting supporters, so a drop in the number of Raiders fans from the previous game v Doncaster of 1618 who brought very few fans. I am very dubious about continuing this live stream 'experiment', - yes it's now £5 per game from being free, but I don't think any other Championship team (except Toulouse) offers it. Are we financially smarter than all the other UK teams? Steve Neale said "1st and foremost we must increase home attendance". Live streaming won't achieve that. I think gates last season averaged around 2000, so we've lost 300 - 500 in attendance per game. Would be interesting to know how many paid £5 today (which would include Rovers fans) for what I understand was terrible audio (again) and how that revenue compares with the loss of 300 - 500 x £18 missing Raiders fans. Steve said in today's programme that finances continue to be difficult.

Sorry, my foot remains firmly on the ground, as per my reply to TPH.

Very unfairly, you ended my sentence at June 01, which went on to say, "... as we'll have our 3 best forwards (Bullock, King and Walker) back and raring to go for our first home game in 5-weeks. They are NOT back.