Sat 23rd-Sun 24th Jul: The Betfred Championship Match Thread

[crashmon]

On 22/07/2022 at 22:10, crashmon said:

London have improved, but remember recent wins was vs Sheffield and Bradford who are both in a bit of freefall right now.  Fax will still win by 3-4 scores

I'm predicting that Sheffield will put 50 on London at the Bash.... You heard it here first

[JonM]

36 minutes ago, paulwalker71 said:

Well, firstly, it was some Bradford fans, not all.

Widnes had a decent squad which was under performing, and Kear was exactly the right person to come in, get them organised and motivate them to start playing to their potential

It doesn't surprise me in the least that they've had a new coach bounce

Whether he's the right guy to take them forward with recruitment for 2023, well, we'll see...

Yes, wasn't intended as a criticism of Bradford fans - clearly something wasn't working and it was time for a change at both clubs. Just thought it was interesting that a coach can leave one club, go to another, and both seem to be playing better as a result.

Suspect that now we've had the first full season of spectators in grounds, Widnes will have a bigger budget in 2023.

 

[Tommygilf]

3 hours ago, tim2 said:

They let us leave and come back later.

I reckon the bus must have been on the road for 6 hours. I also reckon the Workington guy who got sent off must have decided he'd had enough of long bus trips and decided to get banned for a few weeks. Absolutely dumb, although he did take an equally dumb Eagles player down with him.

Thackeray's a class act. Far too good for Town. I reckon Wath Brow would have given Eagles as good a game today. 

 

Yeah we went to Meadowhall in the interlude.

[Harry Stottle]

13 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

66-10. I was there, my mate came back from Newcastle for it. They beat us three times more that season at home, at Magic and in the 8s. Didn't win the game that mattered though!

Even the structure in attack was generally non-existent too.

I think the disruption to the Cas team for the final game re Zac Hardacre went a long way to disrupting Castleford both tactically and between the ear holes which helped Leeds no end in winning the game.

[Harry Stottle]

2 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Regards Fev I do get where some of their fans are coming from in that this was looking like their year and it must be frustrating to see Leigh stroll in and buy success like they have to the point where they are a very distant 2nd fav now but the facts are they are going to get a home semi final to get to the final and then if they get through that its a one off game and you never know.

Didn't Fev try to buy success Oxy?, I well remember when we hardly had a team to put on the field and Fev were streets ahead with the fanfare of getting Joey, Ryley, Sene and a host of others, yes I was very worried we would not compete, then we outspent Fev.

Anyway as they say "Till the fat Lady Sings" I am not confident that Leigh will win in the final till the ref blows the final whistle and we are in front, as I have said before I think the final should be at a neutral venue, but will be happy if it is at the LSV.

[tim2]

3 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

 

Regards Fev I do get where some of their fans are coming from in that this was looking like their year and it must be frustrating to see Leigh stroll in and buy success like they have to the point where they are a very distant 2nd fav now but the facts are they are going to get a home semi final to get to the final and then if they get through that its a one off game and you never know.

This is true and why I hate the format. I still have Leigh as massive favourites, and I'm even 100% sure at this stage that they'll be playing Fev either, for the same reason. Fev are only a bit better than the challengers and one stupid red card and/or a couple of injuries before and on the day might be enough for them to lose the semi-final.

[tim2]

26 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Yeah we went to Meadowhall in the interlude.

Only marginally better than a 2 hour wait sheltering from the rain.

Update on the Worky player who got sent off. Reports are that he was very upset with himself for losing it - Worky are struggling enough without having players missing through suspension so he felt he'd let everybody down. On the Sheffield side Liu hardly plays so to do that when you get your chance was pretty daft.

[The Blues Ox]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

Didn't Fev try to buy success Oxy?, I well remember when we hardly had a team to put on the field and Fev were streets ahead with the fanfare of getting Joey, Ryley, Sene and a host of others, yes I was very worried we would not compete, then we outspent Fev.

Anyway as they say "Till the fat Lady Sings" I am not confident that Leigh will win in the final till the ref blows the final whistle and we are in front, as I have said before I think the final should be at a neutral venue, but will be happy if it is at the LSV.

Possibly but they already had a squad in place before a ball was kicked that was expected to be some distance the best team in the league.

[David Shepherd]

1 hour ago, Harry Stottle said:

I think the disruption to the Cas team for the final game re Zac Hardacre went a long way to disrupting Castleford both tactically and between the ear holes which helped Leeds no end in winning the game.

Who in the Leigh camp is our best bet for doing a Zak? 

[David Shepherd]

1 hour ago, tim2 said:

This is true and why I hate the format. I still have Leigh as massive favourites, and I'm even 100% sure at this stage that they'll be playing Fev either, for the same reason. Fev are only a bit better than the challengers and one stupid red card and/or a couple of injuries before and on the day might be enough for them to lose the semi-final.

The final is more likely to be Leigh v 'fax or Batley.

Fev are not as good as either of them.

[Harry Stottle]

4 hours ago, David Shepherd said:

Who in the Leigh camp is our best bet for doing a Zak? 

Sorry David, they are all alter boys in comparrison to Zak, actually I have never thought about this, but apart from Blake Ferguson and his well documented furlough in Japan I haven't heard anything derogatory about any other member of the squad.

[Harry Stottle]

4 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Possibly but they already had a squad in place before a ball was kicked that was expected to be some distance the best team in the league.

Yes, that is what I was eluding to I think there was a point in December when I looked at what we had and it wasn't a good outlook.

[Fevrover]

4 hours ago, David Shepherd said:

The final is more likely to be Leigh v 'fax or Batley.

Fev are not as good as either of them.

They both lost yesterday so arn't unbeatable as many think.

[JonM]

That pass from Ipape on the Whitehaven v Leigh highlights is worth a few seconds of people's time.