Match thread. Championship Round 23. Featherstone Rovers v Keighley Cougars. Sunday 27th August 2023

[marklaspalmas]

Solid win in James Ford's first game in charge.

Junior Moors back from injury and no new injuries I've heard of. 

Talk that Jono Ford could be available for this game, with fans also waiting on McKenzie Yei, Brad Day and Jack Bussey.

Tommy Lacans, Mathieu Cozza and Ellis Longstaff all missed out at Sheffield so perhaps they'll be in the mix too.

The penultimate home league fixture of the season, and the club hoping for a bumper crowd to boost their IMG rating in 2024.

Keighley had a good win last week, but Rovers should win this comfortably and well.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, marklaspalmas said:

Tommy Lacans, Mathieu Cozza and Ellis Longstaff all missed out at Sheffield so perhaps they'll be in the mix too.

 

Yes, my first reaction when I saw the 17 for Sheffield is that size and physicality are important to Ford. Lacans and Longstaff are plucky but unquestionably undersized. Cozza has been an effective player this season for us but perhaps lacks the "grunt" of some of our other middles.

It's not just about size of course and Davies who as we know is small but very strong in contact got a reasonable number of minutes. I think Cozza and Longstaff will feature at some stage, but I wonder if Lacans might struggle for opportunities barring injury.

Possible we'll see some rotation this weekend. Moors had ice on his ankle at the end of the Sheffield game (maybe just precaution), wouldn't be surprising if the occasional resting of one  of him, Koppy or Locky happens this weekend especially with a tough up-the-middle battle likely at Bradford the following week.

This has been signalled as Johnno Ford's comeback game for a while so just hope he comes through it unscathed.

Keighley will be desperate with their Championship status on the line but as MLP says it will be disappointing if we don't win with something to spare.

[elppaxr2i]

40 point + mauling for the cougars 

[sentoffagain2]

53 minutes ago, elppaxr2i said:

40 point + mauling for the cougars 

  Yes i see it by about 50 points and being holiday time we will do well to get an attendance of over 2600.

[Daft old hooker]

Will be interesting to see who plays at half back if Ford is fit does that mean we go with 2 recognised halves or Aekins with Ford or Chizzy or one of them on the bench? Lots of questions.

[haskey]

Leave it to Ford to see how views his squad

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

1 hour ago, Daft old hooker said:

Will be interesting to see who plays at half back if Ford is fit does that mean we go with 2 recognised halves or Aekins with Ford or Chizzy or one of them on the bench? Lots of questions.

Ford looked to be taking part in training rather than just observing in yesterday's SM pictures

[Monkeymagic22]

20 hours ago, sentoffagain2 said:

  Yes i see it by about 50 points and being holiday time we will do well to get an attendance of over 2600.

From my quick calculations we need crowds over 3K to get the IMG additional points. Looks tough this weekend. If the playoff matches count, maybe we have a chance. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 minute ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

From my quick calculations we need crowds over 3K to get the IMG additional points. Looks tough this weekend. If the playoff matches count, maybe we have a chance. 

Yes but averaged over a 3-year period. If we're in SL next year that 1 year's attendances should easily tilt us over the 3k average. Indicative/illustrative figures will be published next month I believe for where we would have stood had the new system been coming in for 2024 (though I think based on 2020-22 data), but the figures don't count for anything until next year.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Yes but averaged over a 3-year period. If we're in SL next year that 1 year's attendances should easily tilt us over the 3k average. Indicative/illustrative figures will be published next month I believe for where we would have stood had the new system been coming in for 2024 (though I think based on 2020-22 data), but the figures don't count for anything until next year.

Will be interesting if they use 2020-22 attendances - we only had one home game in 2020 and 2021 had both crowdless and reduced capacity matches....

[The Phantom Horseman]

4 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Will be interesting if they use 2020-22 attendances - we only had one home game in 2020 and 2021 had both crowdless and reduced capacity matches....

I think I read something about using 2019 instead of 2020 now I think about it, which would make more sense.

Maybe our figure will just be nudged over the threshold by the fans who congregated behind the railings at the back of the POR end in early 2021!

[J Phil Loxton]

40 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I think I read something about using 2019 instead of 2020 now I think about it, which would make more sense.

Maybe our figure will just be nudged over the threshold by the fans who congregated behind the railings at the back of the POR end in early 2021!

Yes we did have a few attendances behind the railings If we had a ground like Sheffield then we could have easily topped three thousand on the grass embankment outside.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

2 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I think I read something about using 2019 instead of 2020 now I think about it, which would make more sense.

Maybe our figure will just be nudged over the threshold by the fans who congregated behind the railings at the back of the POR end in early 2021!

Using 2021 is an odd one too with some local authorities seemingly being stricter than others on maximum reduced capacities. 

[haskey]

Surprising this taking in crowd figures, when in League Express half the clubs say " attendances not given" Explain this ??

[gazza77]

1 hour ago, haskey said:

Surprising this taking in crowd figures, when in League Express half the clubs say " attendances not given" Explain this ??

Not published doesn't mean they weren't counted.

[jamescolin]

Has the team for the Keighley game been announced yet?

[gazza77]

5 minutes ago, jamescolin said:

Has the team for the Keighley game been announced yet?

Squad will be announced 48 hours before kick off, as usual.

[marklaspalmas]

Just one change to the 21 man squad from last week.

Lacans out, Ford in.

[marklaspalmas]

3 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

Just one change to the 21 man squad from last week.

Lacans out, Ford in.

[POR]

[Wolfey Rovers]

Lackluster 1st half, 

Leilua cermenting why Longstaff or aekins should be center. He's a million miles off the championship.

Some good individual efforts but we aren't clicking as a team. Against better opposition id say we would be behind on the scoreboard 

Edited August 27, 2023 by Wolfey Rovers
Spelling

[bigbaldnmad]

1 hour ago, Wolfey Rovers said:

Leilua cermenting why Longstaff or aekins should be center. He's a million miles off the championship.

Made one and scored one in the second half... they obviously showed him your post at half time.

Joey was quiet first half but made up for it in the second.

[Wolfey Rovers]

That's his problem, he always has to up his game in each performance. The bloke has no consistency apart from the obvious backdoor pass. 

If he gave 100% every game he would do well but I always walk away like we got 65% of joey

Edited August 27, 2023 by Wolfey Rovers

[Monkeymagic22]

Scratchy performance, with quite a few errors today. Couple of worrying injuries, Hau and Briscoe.

[sentoffagain2]

   A bit from the form we showed at Eagles last week.We got our first three tries from Keighley mistakes and couldn't create much despite good field position in the first half.As stated no joined up attack no short balls just basic throw the ball across the line.Good job Jones backs up because no one else does.Hau injury was avoidable because he shouldn't have had the ball on the last tackle in that position.Still think we need better than Aekins provides at 6.Why didn't we have Chizzy scrum half and Ford stand off for the second half.Only three players worth a mention for me on todays efforts.Jones,Davies and Locky.Good news we will finish top as i can't see a points difference of +239 being overtaken.Lastly well done Keighley for a spirited effort they kept on to the final whistle.I do hope they stay up.And Fine Joey £50 every time he loses the ball with those stupid passes.