Fri 3rd-Sun 5th May: The Betfred Championship Match Thread

[Fevrover]

47 minutes ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

This game was everything I expected when I realised I recognised most of the Doncaster team. Delighted to come out on the right side of it. Pretty sure we'd have lost it in recent seasons.

 

Mostly ex Fev ?  

[doc]

Widnes v Doncaster 16-14

Att 2936

Maybe 30 Dons fans, very vocal.

Ref looked about 18. Some interesting decisions, ahem, for or against both sides. 

 

[Fevrover]

12 minutes ago, Havenwarrior2021 said:

that will do haven proud fan traveling home now awesome today lads should have been more don’t think much of york though. 

It's a great place is York ,full of history. 

[Jill Halfpenny fan]

6 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

Mostly ex Fev ?  

Smeaton, Ferris, Briscoe, Hall?

Edited May 5 by Jill Halfpenny fan

[Fevrover]

2 minutes ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

Smeaton, Ferris, Hall?

Taulapapa,Briscoe,McConnell and Boas.

[Jill Halfpenny fan]

1 minute ago, Fevrover said:

Taulapapa,Briscoe,McConnell and Boas.

Your knowledge of ex Featherstone players is better than mine.

[Fevrover]

Just now, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

Your knowledge of ex Featherstone players is better than mine.

Seen a few more then you lol,i can still remember the great Widnes team with Offiah especially, tormented Rovers to death, Widnes very rarely got below 40 points when beating us. 

[Rene_Artois]

5 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

Taulapapa,Briscoe,McConnell and Boas.

Forgot Knowles.

[Jill Halfpenny fan]

59 minutes ago, Fevrover said:

Seen a few more then you lol,i can still remember the great Widnes team with Offiah especially, tormented Rovers to death, Widnes very rarely got below 40 points when beating us. 

Long time ago that, you've handed out your fair share of spankings to us in recent years.

[Jill Halfpenny fan]

1 hour ago, doc said:

Widnes v Doncaster 16-14

Att 2936

Maybe 30 Dons fans, very vocal.

Ref looked about 18. Some interesting decisions, ahem, for or against both sides. 

 

Tend to disagree with Rene reckoning that Doncaster dominated much of the game. No doubt they enjoyed better field position for much of the first half but that tended to be on the back of us getting penalised whenever we had them in their own half. Second half it was the last ten minutes when they gave it a go.  I can't remember a clean break all game, it was a very attritional match.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

1 hour ago, Rene_Artois said:

Forgot Knowles.

And Hepi....

[Rene_Artois]

15 minutes ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

Tend to disagree with Rene reckoning that Doncaster dominated much of the game. No doubt they enjoyed better field position for much of the first half but that tended to be on the back of us getting penalised whenever we had them in their own half. Second half it was the last ten minutes when they gave it a go.  I can't remember a clean break all game, it was a very attritional match.

Yeah sorry Jill I think I phrased it badly. I was really emphasising that that crucial period around half time won the game for Widnes. I think determination rather than control was what kept us in the game. We've had a bit of a baptism of fire as a team but we're getting there. I went into today just hoping to keep it respectable. Job done and as a club and fans we're happy to be able to be part of this. Good to be a Dons fan and congratulations again to Widnes.

[Moonshine]

26 minutes ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

Tend to disagree with Rene reckoning that Doncaster dominated much of the game. No doubt they enjoyed better field position for much of the first half but that tended to be on the back of us getting penalised whenever we had them in their own half. Second half it was the last ten minutes when they gave it a go.  I can't remember a clean break all game, it was a very attritional match.

Fair do's. Dons still feeling their way with the step up to Championship rugby and that includes the Coach.  Big improvement today from the spanking we got at yours in the cup game. Two point margin result today is a big bonus as far as I'm concerned.

[Wollo Wollo Wayoo]

On 04/05/2024 at 09:00, The Blues Ox said:

I think we understimate just how much the Championship as a whole has moved backwards this past couple of seasons. Sheffield do look a best of the rest team but 3-5 years ago its probably a team scraping in the playoffs. Wakefield have the weakest Championship in years and a team that would likely finish bottom 2 in SL and isn't really a patch on the Leigh promotion team. 

Following on from 20+ years in Super League where we never won a single game unless the opposition played ###### it's good to know that fortune has followed us into the worst Championship in living memory. 

[Fevrover]

1 hour ago, Jill Halfpenny fan said:

Long time ago that, you've handed out your fair share of spankings to us in recent years.

And I've enjoyed them even the 74-6 one simply for our MANY spankings lol.

[Jill Halfpenny fan]

51 minutes ago, Moonshine said:

Fair do's. Dons still feeling their way with the step up to Championship rugby and that includes the Coach.  Big improvement today from the spanking we got at yours in the cup game. Two point margin result today is a big bonus as far as I'm concerned.

To be fair the score flattered us in the cup and you had a few missing. Today was always going to be a different challenge.  

[JonM]

1 hour ago, Rene_Artois said:

Yeah sorry Jill I think I phrased it badly. I was really emphasising that that crucial period around half time won the game for Widnes. I think determination rather than control was what kept us in the game. We've had a bit of a baptism of fire as a team but we're getting there. I went into today just hoping to keep it respectable. Job done and as a club and fans we're happy to be able to be part of this. Good to be a Dons fan and congratulations again to Widnes.

If Doncaster had come away with the two points, I don't think anyone could've said it was an unfair result. To use a cliche it was a real arm wrestle of a game where both sets of players put a lot of effort in. I'm sure the Widnes side of recent seasons would've folded long before the end. Doncaster obviously massively improved from their previous visit this season although they had quite a few missing that day. 

Thought Tom Nisbet, on loan from Leigh, had a pretty good debut for Widnes. He doesn't seem to have had a huge amount of game time at his various previous clubs.

[Gooleboy]

An excellent win today for Featherstone, but what is going on at Halifax? A fine team on paper, but not on the pitch.

[Rene_Artois]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

If Doncaster had come away with the two points, I don't think anyone could've said it was an unfair result. To use a cliche it was a real arm wrestle of a game where both sets of players put a lot of effort in. I'm sure the Widnes side of recent seasons would've folded long before the end. Doncaster obviously massively improved from their previous visit this season although they had quite a few missing that day. 

Thought Tom Nisbet, on loan from Leigh, had a pretty good debut for Widnes. He doesn't seem to have had a huge amount of game time at his various previous clubs.

Fair comment. We were missing a few today tho. Alex Sutcliffe and Reece Lyne in particular are big misses. Seems our old lad Jase Tali stepped up today which is pleasing. Donny Legend. 

As I've said losing Pauli was a blow. Apart from his obvious threat it restricted our interchange options. No excuses though. Happy where we're at.

Edited May 5 by Rene_Artois

[bigbaldnmad]

25 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

An excellent win today for Featherstone, but what is going on at Halifax? A fine team on paper, but not on the pitch.

Totally agree... can't remember seeing a Fax team so bad.

[Bull Mania]

York V Fax will be a interesting game in two weeks time. 

[Fevrover]

10 hours ago, Gooleboy said:

An excellent win today for Featherstone, but what is going on at Halifax? A fine team on paper, but not on the pitch.

Yeah on paper it looks a good team,some of their players have there years.

[The Blues Ox]

1 hour ago, Fevrover said:

Yeah on paper it looks a good team,some of their players have there years.

Exactly this. A good team on paper about 3 or 4 years ago. Most of the team is washed now and a lot of them should have been replaced over the last 2 or 3 seasons. Finn is now reaping the rewards of Grix's loyalty to some of the players and with no money to spend with the new board of directors apparently struggling for cash its going to be a very long season.

To be fair losing 3 of our best players for the season in a nothing cup game against an amateur team has had a huge barring. It probably made our challenge cup run a lot more expensive for the club on and off the field than the 1895 cup run last season which cost the club a fortune and that takes some doing.

[Mumby Magic]

6 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

Exactly this. A good team on paper about 3 or 4 years ago. Most of the team is washed now and a lot of them should have been replaced over the last 2 or 3 seasons. Finn is now reaping the rewards of Grix's loyalty to some of the players and with no money to spend with the new board of directors apparently struggling for cash its going to be a very long season.

To be fair losing 3 of our best players for the season in a nothing cup game against an amateur team has had a huge barring. It probably made our challenge cup run a lot more expensive for the club on and off the field than the 1895 cup run last season which cost the club a fortune and that takes some doing.

Think you've hit the nail on the head. It's all about balance. We've been the other side of that, constantly changing squad with the exception of Lilley and Flanagan  (plus DFJ). We couldn't get any consistency. 

[Mumby Magic]

For our game, expected more from Swinton. They had the ball for nearly the first 10 minutes and I thought, here we go.... 

We did what we need to that's the best way to put it. 2 side notes 1. Great fans 2. Patton I must have ond of the worst attitudes going. Swinton was awarded a penalty but that wasn't enough and Patton kept going verbally. Penalty reversed for decent and we go in for I believe the final try.