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Match Thread: The 1895 Cup Semi-final, Featherstone Rovers v Widnes Sunday-6th-June-2021

marklaspalmas

By marklaspalmas
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marklaspalmas

marklaspalmas

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Seven wins out of seven and joint top of the table in the League.

Now it's time for a break.

But not for Featherstone Rovers who have a Cup semi-final, and are one step from Wembley.

Widnes the opposition, a great Cup fighting name, that.

Who knows how it will go? They started with some poor results, and have recently posted a couple of decent wins, so let's see.

We'll be favourites no doubt.

The Injury List last week

From the 14 players who didn't play at Halifax, we had:

1 suspended: Blackmore

10 injured: Hardcastle, Bussey (ankle) and Doyle (road accident) all selected in the 21 v Fax. Plus Ferres (leg), Harrison (foot), Ferguson (hamstring), Welham (Covid related), Cooper (not known). Plus Sweeting and Summer are listed as injured, although they are yet to play this year.

3 Not selected: Sheriff, Whitton and Spence (named in 21). None of whom have played yet this year.

The injury list this week

So, from the 17 at Halifax, we've seen that Chisholm and Halton picked up knocks late on, but also Koppy and Field may have knocks too.

Given that Hardcastle, Bussey and Doyle all made the 21, there must be hopes that all three will be back for Widnes.

If not, and if the prognosis on the aforementioned four is not good, we could be really low on numbers.

 

Here's hoping for a few recoveries, better luck with injuries, a strong side out to face Widnes, and a trip to Wembley.

https://www.fevarchive.co.uk/

 

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tms

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Looking at the list no mention of injuries   to Doyle (road accident)Welham (Covid related),so would assume they will be   up for selection 

For Cooper (not known).    watching him  directing the rovers singsong  would suggest he missed out  sunday because of webbos picks rather than injury so another one  should be  available

AS for the players with knocks after the intensity of the game  would have thought they are not the only one's on both sides who are feeling  bumps and bruises  but once again looking at FEV's singsong performance didn't see many sat down holding body parts feeling sorry for themselves 

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The Phantom Horseman

The Phantom Horseman

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Of the players who missed out injured against Halifax, Webster has said that Bussey, Cooper, Hardcastle and Doyle might have a chance to play next week, and even mentioned Harrison (presumably that would be a long shot at this stage), whilst he said Ferres and Ferguson were likely to still be out.

If we can get two or three out of that group of four back that would certainly help. I suspect that the fitness tests will be a bit more rigorous than having to bang on a table whilst leading the team song though...😀 Josh took part in the captain's run this weekend so presumably wasn't far away (I think I might have seen Joe Summers in there too though am not sure).

Chisholm will obviously be a massive miss if out, he's in a boot so we'll have to see whether it's just a short-term issue or not. If he's not fit then the obvious move would be for Hall to revert to full back assuming we have enough guys to cover the threequarter positions, which hopefully we will. Either way Halton did a fine job of filling in as a makeshift centre against Halifax.

I watched Widnes' game against Oldham, they have certainly improved since earlier in the season as they have got some of their injured players back, and they scored some nicely-worked tries, acknowledging the weakness of the opposition.

They have some useful players in their spine and we will need to defend well, but we've been doing just that lately barring a couple of poor efforts right on our goal line against Sheffield. However if we are able to field a reasonable team I think they might struggle to contain us when we have the ball. They played Matty Smith as a 13 against Oldham and it will be interetsing to see if they do that against us, after playing 40 minutes defending in the middle of the park he was brushed off by the smallest player in Championship at the end of the first half to lead to an Oldham try.

Overall unless the injuries have really taken their toll I think we'll be too strong for them and can book our first Wembley appearance for 38 years. UTR!

 

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1 hour ago, Robin Evans said:

Nah.... I'm suggesting that parata starts at 9 with either Bussey or JD on bench as replacement hooker.... if chiz is out.

WHY you got chizzy down as hooker😀

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The Phantom Horseman

The Phantom Horseman

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1 hour ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

Personally given that's there's little money involved in this competition I'd wouldn't be looking to play any players who are carrying a knock. Give some of the fringe players a run out.

Think even some of the grizzled SL veterans in our squad will be gagging to play in this one because of what the reward is for winning. We pretty much went all out out in the Challenge Cup games even though there was no chance of getting to Wembley or playing in front of a big crowd so there's not much point in suddenly being half-hearted about this game which is one step from Wembley.

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The Phantom Horseman

The Phantom Horseman

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15 hours ago, jamescolin said:

Agreed TPH. Strongest team needed.  What is your line up on the latest injury level.

We will be guessing to a degree until the team is announced an hour before kick off. We'll get some clues when the 21-man sqaud is announced, but they will only be clues - Bussey was named in last Friday's squad but didn't play, Moors loooked set to miss last week's game all week until a late decision etc.

If we can get two out of Bussey, Hardcastle, Cooper, Doyle and Harrison back that would help enormously as it would mean we can do our interchanges "properly" instead of just trying to get 15 minutes out of each of the younger forwards and asking Lockwood, Kopczak etc to play for over an hour.

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Monkeymagic22

Monkeymagic22

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15 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Think even some of the grizzled SL veterans in our squad will be gagging to play in this one because of what the reward is for winning. We pretty much went all out out in the Challenge Cup games even though there was no chance of getting to Wembley or playing in front of a big crowd so there's not much point in suddenly being half-hearted about this game which is one step from Wembley.

I can see why the players would like to play at Wembley. But this is a meaningless competition, which with its extra games, means more chance of injuries and then less chance of winning promotion. 
 

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The Phantom Horseman

The Phantom Horseman

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3 minutes ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

I can see why the players would like to play at Wembley. But this is a meaningless competition, which with its extra games, means more chance of injuries and then less chance of winning promotion. 
 

Yes but apart from the players wanting to play at Wembley, the chairman wanting to lead his side out at Wembley, the fans getting their first chance to watch Fev at Wembley for 38 years, the national publicity on Cup Final day, and the chance to win some silverware...what has the 1895 Cup ever done for us?

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Monkeymagic22

Monkeymagic22

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4 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Yes but apart from the players wanting to play at Wembley, the chairman wanting to lead his side out at Wembley, the fans getting their first chance to watch Fev at Wembley for 38 years, the national publicity on Cup Final day, and the chance to win some silverware...what has the 1895 Cup ever done for us?

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I'm just not having the 1895 trophy as any kind of credible competition.

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sentoffagain2

sentoffagain2

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1 hour ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I'm just not having the 1895 trophy as any kind of credible competition.

   Me too but it will give our younger supporters the chance to see Rovers play at Wembley.How many school age children will go with their parents and then become long term supporters?.Extra media coverage will be good.Remember being on the Tube i 1983 talking to a young couple attending the Twickenham sevens.They asked which team we supported and when i said Featherstone they had never heard of it and asked where it was.

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1 hour ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

I can see why the players would like to play at Wembley. But this is a meaningless competition, which with its extra games, means more chance of injuries and then less chance of winning promotion. 
 

You make it sound like were going to play a boat load of games when  we'ave only got the chance to play two  cup games and remember we'ave lost four league games so in reality were playing less this year 

every game holds the chance of an injury but if we say that's the reason not to play in the 1895 cup then we might as well pack it all in and never play another game  remember you can get injured outside  of game day A Barnsley midfielder was in the midst of house training his new puppy, and it obviously wasn’t going too well. He failed to notice a steaming yellow puddle in his kitchen and slipped in it, tearing knee ligaments in the process. So are we going to ban FEV players  having dogs 

less chance of winning promotion. interesting analogy I think you would agree with  me we will comfortably be in the top six so winning promotion will be about the play offs not 1895 cup games

 

1 hour ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I'm just not having the 1895 trophy as any kind of credible competition.

Of course it's credible it's not been made up by the cubs but authorised by the RFL If the 1895 is not credible YOU could argue the challenge cup is not credible only supergreed can win it  so lets not play in that ever again and stop the chance of players getting injured and have less chance of winning promotion

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