Match Thread. Catalan Dragons v Featherstone Rovers Saturday 9th September 2017

[marklaspalmas]

Second visit to France in the last six weeks. Les Cats fighting to stay in SL, I'm not sure how we'll go. Our third visit to Perpignan, we did very well the last time we were there.

The team's setting off v.early on Saturday for the game I heard. Not ideal.

Griffin, Bostock and presumably Moore all missing. Ormondroyd was injured v HKR too.

Baldwinson available? Lets hope so.

Otherwise it could be Coops and Brooks as our only front rowers.

Meanwhile if Walton is fit, we have seven back-rowers: Davies, Locky, Farrell, Frankie, Walts, Tagg and Iggy.

Backs: as you were, unless Turner gets a recall.

[The Phantom Horseman]

19-man squad named.
https://www.featherstonerovers.co.uk/news/duffy-makes-triple-change-for-catalans-clash-qz1bN

Don't know if Hardman has been dropped or rested, but presumably Johnson will play full back with Turner replacing him on the wing.

As Mark mentions above we have 5 of our regular props (if you include the two DR lads) missing. Walters gets a recall, Walton makes  a welcome return to the 19.

Think "middles" rather than props is the fashionable phrase, but we certainly don't have many fat lads in that squad.

Catalans the only team in the top two divisions we have never beaten, not sure many of us will be expecting that to change on Saturday but would be nice to put up some sort of decent display for the TV cameras, not to mention those who travel over of course.

[Cardypaul]

Certainly look thin at prop. I think it's safe to say we won't see Baldwinson again now he's signed for Wakefield. All we can ask is that the lads go out and do their best. 

[sentoffagain2]

      It's my birthday shortly and our young un keeps pestering me to have a tattoo.He has a few and his partner has more and they laugh  when i say i don't want one because they don't do anything for me.Well not sticking my neck out if FEV beat Catalan's on Sat i will have the score tattooed on my shoulder.Good luck !.

[Blue Pike]

What happens if its 66-6 ?

[Fev1983]

1 hour ago, Blue Pike said:

What happens if its 66-6 ?

I know we're out of our depth however ?

[marklaspalmas]

On 7/9/2017 at 3:00 PM, The Phantom Horseman said:

19-man squad named.
https://www.featherstonerovers.co.uk/news/duffy-makes-triple-change-for-catalans-clash-qz1bN

Don't know if Hardman has been dropped or rested, but presumably Johnson will play full back with Turner replacing him on the wing.

As Mark mentions above we have 5 of our regular props (if you include the two DR lads) missing. Walters gets a recall, Walton makes  a welcome return to the 19.

Think "middles" rather than props is the fashionable phrase, but we certainly don't have many fat lads in that squad.

Catalans the only team in the top two divisions we have never beaten, not sure many of us will be expecting that to change on Saturday but would be nice to put up some sort of decent display for the TV cameras, not to mention those who travel over of course.

As we feared.

Two props and EIGHT back-rowers in the 19. A very lop-sided looking squad with our five biggest props all missing.

I realise that Lockwood, Tagg, Iggy and probably Walters are all capable of defending in the middle, but Davies, Farrell, Walton and Mariano defend the edges inside the halfbacks.

We are well short of grunt and weight going forward.

Shame cos Cats are low on form and look to be heading for the MPG come what may.

[Blue Pike]

Come on Fev .Looking forward to watching them on Sky Sports. Would love a win .Seems a long time since we won a game ,it must have been when Colin was a lad ??

[elppaxr2i]

Cant fault that really today

Thought the wiiliame try was not a try as there did not appear enough evidence to overturn a no try descision and i thought he was offside anyway but a magnificent effort

That performance shown today by that 17 would beat fax in last game of season

[RobLambert]

Yeah great effort and you can't ask for more than that but in a way it was frustrating because Catalans looked beatable.  A few bad mistakes and dumb penalties (oh joy it seems we've just signed on a new penalty machine) at the wrong time didn't help. I didn't have a problem with their disputed try (although wasn't it just the sort of perfect bounce that we can only dream of) but I thought the ref increasingly gave the 50:50 calls in Cats favour. Lots of positives today though.  Again really impressed with seeing forwards pass the ball.  Good to see Cats having to kick pens, us taking short kick offs, packing down quickly and generally showing more belief and urgency. Warrington back in SL so nothing to play for next week. We can beat em can't we ?........

[The Blues Ox]

10 hours ago, elppaxr2i said:

Cant fault that really today

Thought the wiiliame try was not a try as there did not appear enough evidence to overturn a no try descision and i thought he was offside anyway but a magnificent effort

That performance shown today by that 17 would beat fax in last game of season

Its pretty difficult to say because if Fax produced the performances from something like 6 out of our last 7 games you would expect us to win. It would be daft to take one performance out of context though as its the first time you have even been competitive against a SL team(one that won their cup final last week  ). Its a one off game and its how teams play on the day although form does count for something, we can bill it as the 50k game that is unless we can luck a win at london today in which case it would be about the 300K game

[fev4evatiggerneva]

58 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Its pretty difficult to say because if Fax produced the performances from something like 6 out of our last 7 games you would expect us to win. It would be daft to take one performance out of context though as its the first time you have even been competitive against a SL team(one that won their cup final last week  ). Its a one off game and its how teams play on the day although form does count for something, we can bill it as the 50k game that is unless we can luck a win at london today in which case it would be about the 300K game

Did u not see us knock cas out of the challenge cup that time?

[sentoffagain2]

       Note to Oxy we always win at the Shay.No doubt at all if we play like yesterday we will beat Fax.

[The Blues Ox]

15 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

       Note to Oxy we always win at the Shay.No doubt at all if we play like yesterday we will beat Fax.

Unless you run in to the Fax that played, Hull Kr twice, Fev, Warrington, and Toulouse.........Id fancy a team that has not had a bad game in about 7 over a team that has had 1 good game in 7 any day

[fev4evatiggerneva]

20 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Unless you run in to the Fax that played, Hull Kr twice, Fev, Warrington, and Toulouse.........Id fancy a team that has not had a bad game in about 7 over a team that has had 1 good game in 7 any day

Oxy getting cocky again now. Went missing beggining of year when fax were shabba?

[RobLambert]

3 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Unless you run in to the Fax that played, Hull Kr twice, Fev, Warrington, and Toulouse.........Id fancy a team that has not had a bad game in about 7 over a team that has had 1 good game in 7 any day

Getting nilled at home is not a 'bad game' for you ???? You have low standards don't you ? Come to think of it all your wins during your recent 'purple patch' have been against teams with nothing to play for.

In terms of our recent alleged lack of form, I don't think a last minute defeat in Toulouse, a draw in London or our last 2 games could be classed as poor form. Even the Leigh margin of defeat would be a good result by your own standards.

I think you need to look at the table - it doesn't lie - you may change your deluded opinion as to how good your team is.

I fully expect Fax to be trounced by both London (unfortunately for us) and Fev - even with half the team missing like yesterday.

[The Blues Ox]

8 minutes ago, fev4evatiggerneva said:

Oxy getting cocky again now. Went missing beggining of year when fax were shabba?

Just been realistic like I were at the beginning of the season when I said we wouldnt finish in the top 4. To finish as the best part time team with the best defence in the competition was a nice result.

[The Blues Ox]

Just now, RobLambert said:

Getting nilled at home is not a 'bad game' for you ???? You have low standards don't you ? Come to think of it all your wins during your recent 'purple patch' have been against teams with nothing to play for.

In terms of our recent alleged lack of form, I don't think a last minute defeat in Toulouse, a draw in London or our last 2 games could be classed as poor form. Even the Leigh margin of defeat would be a good result by your own standards.

I think you need to look at the table - it doesn't lie - you may change your deluded opinion as to how good your team is.

I fully expect Fax to be trounced by both London (unfortunately for us) and Fev - even with half the team missing like yesterday.

Context. Losing 24-0 to a team spending 1.8m compared to a team spending 300k and one that everything to lose is not as bad a result as it suggests and we would have beaten most championship teams with that performance.As Steve Mcnamara said afterwards it was probably his teams best performance since he joined. I really have no idea about your results, Im just going off the reaction on here which seems to be the end of the world when you lose a game against a team spending nearly 3 times as much as you do.
As for the last game you should beat us, your spend is nearly double what ours has been yet it didnt stop us finishing above you in the table so you never know. "The table doesn't lie" is quite a common misconception because its at the end of the season when it doesn't lie.

[RobLambert]

3 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Context. Losing 24-0 to a team spending 1.8m compared to a team spending 300k and one that everything to lose is not as bad a result as it suggests and we would have beaten most championship teams with that performance.As Steve Mcnamara said afterwards it was probably his teams best performance since he joined. I really have no idea about your results, Im just going off the reaction on here which seems to be the end of the world when you lose a game against a team spending nearly 3 times as much as you do.
As for the last game you should beat us, your spend is nearly double what ours has been yet it didnt stop us finishing above you in the table so you never know. "The table doesn't lie" is quite a common misconception because its at the end of the season when it doesn't lie.

My comments were entirely in response to your totally biased take on recent performances.  So I'm not sure where the spending issue came into it. I think Fev fans do have high expectations and wouldn't think being nilled at home is acceptable.  Your admission that the only idea you have of other results is by looking on other forums explains a lot. Athough we did already know that you spend a long time on here.

[Steve Slater]

33 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

As for the last game you should beat us, your spend is nearly double what ours has been yet it didnt stop us finishing above you in the table so you never know. "The table doesn't lie" is quite a common misconception because its at the end of the season when it doesn't lie.

The table can lie at the end of the season, and we all know that Fax got into the Qualifiers via the back door. Both Fev and Hull KR were already there and rested key players, neither did they have the same desire as Fax. It was grossly unfair on Toulouse, although Fev might have beaten them too if a Top 4 place had depended on it, we'll never know?

It might be unfair on Fax and London next week if Warrington don't turn up with any kind of commitment, and unfair on Leigh and Widnes if KR roll over against Catalans, but this sort of thing is a regular occurrence in mini leagues. I think the huge funding differential between the prizes for 6th and 7th place are also unfair because of this.

[fev4evatiggerneva]

4 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Just been realistic like I were at the beginning of the season when I said we wouldnt finish in the top 4. To finish as the best part time team with the best defence in the competition was a nice result.

You dont get many right like though do you?

[ethelred the unready]

5 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Context. Losing 24-0 to a team spending 1.8m compared to a team spending 300k and one that everything to lose is not as bad a result as it suggests and we would have beaten most championship teams with that performance.As Steve Mcnamara said afterwards it was probably his teams best performance since he joined. I really have no idea about your results, Im just going off the reaction on here which seems to be the end of the world when you lose a game against a team spending nearly 3 times as much as you do.
As for the last game you should beat us, your spend is nearly double what ours has been yet it didnt stop us finishing above you in the table so you never know. "The table doesn't lie" is quite a common misconception because its at the end of the season when it doesn't lie.

Never known anybody talk so much drivel. Don't know why anyone bothers to reply to his posts.

[Robin Evans]

See..... I think oxy lad fronts himself up well. I don't get wound up by his comments and he's happy to take the sheeite we throw at him.... but does chucksome corn down when fax are on the go....

Relax.... he's reight. Just t'same as us really..... he supports a club not in super league feeding on the scraps down here in the sludge.

[ethelred the unready]

13 minutes ago, Robin Evans said:

See..... I think oxy lad fronts himself up well. I don't get wound up by his comments and he's happy to take the sheeite we throw at him.... but does chucksome corn down when fax are on the go....

Relax.... he's reight. Just t'same as us really..... he supports a club not in super league feeding on the scraps down here in the sludge.

Fair enough Robin. He doesn't wind me up, but I find him exceedingly boring and I would prefer to read something a tad more challenging. 

[Robin Evans]

I actually think he brings a bit of life to the forum ethelred. It's no big deal. Plenty of room.for us all mate. ?