Match thread: Championship Round 7, Featherstone Rovers v York Knights, Good Friday 18th April 2025

[The Phantom Horseman]

Think Marklaspalmas is on his travels so am filling in with this week's match thread.

A much-improved performance at Oldham - probably our best of the season with ball in hand, and we were unlucky not to get anything out of that game. But we're at the wrong end of the table with just 1 league win, and it doesn't get any easier with York next up.

York are in red-hot form at the moment. I watched their game against Doncaster, and there is little doubt that whilst Doncaster were awful, some of the tries they conceded coming from comical defence, York were really good - absolutely dominant in the physical game up the middle and never letting Doncaster even get a foothold, it was a totally one-sided game.

We'll be doing well if we can match them in the arm wrestle on that evidence, but there is a bit of hope that we can at least trouble teams with ball in hand now we have a couple of quality halves playing. Really hope Reynolds is ok to play, even if he can't kick goals again.

Springer will be available regardless of his disciplinary outcome on Thursday but it might be the last time for a while (though my view of his red card having watched the head-on replay is that he hit the Oldham player across the chest and bashed him straight into Beckett's head or shoulder). Let's hope Connor Jones is ok as he picked up a head knock, and though he carried on, he was substituted a minute later.

Despite conceding 5 tries (two of which came from high kicks) I thought we defended a bit better than for the last few weeks against Oldham - there weren't as many obvious gaps in the defenisive line as there had been in a few of our recent games. But York will test us to the full, and on recent form have to start favourites.

 

[fevnut]

T’Other Side:  York Knights

fevnut has posted ‘T’Other Side:  York Knights’, our comprehensive guide to our next opponents.

In it we include their 2025 squad and a list of their new signings, their stats for this season and the details of their last match.

Other features include a list of their 2025 results, profiles of their coach and captain and a section that takes a look at players who have played for them and played for Fev as well.

Access the page by clicking on the attachment below.

https://bit.ly/4cuAwog

[fevnut]

PAST MATCHES BETWEEN YORK KNIGHTS AND FEATHERSTONE ROVERS

fevnut has posted ‘Past Matches against York Knights’, an informative listing of all official matches between the two clubs.

Fev’s highest ever score in a league match was against York – check it out!

You will also find the details of the last match between us, the overall record of results and records in the matches such as highest scores, record winning margins etc.

The results section is divided into league matches, challenge cup games and other competitions such as play-offs, premierships, national league cup, John Player Trophy etc.

Access the charts by clicking on the attachment below.

https://bit.ly/42Ci20H

[fevnut]

THIS WEEK’S REFEREE: Fev v York Knights

fevnut has posted ‘This week’s referee: Fev v York Knights’ (Championship Round 7)’.

Access the information by clicking on the link below.

https://bit.ly/4ieCbQ8

[marklaspalmas]

Thanks TPH. Way better intro than I'd've managed. The job's yours 

The Peak District is lovely, but I'll be at POR on Friday.

Springer will be banned, but he's unlucky. But, as you say, he'll play v York anyway. As our main big man, let's hope his suspension is light 

Hopefully everyone else is ok. Obviously Reynolds is not 100% otherwise he'd've been kicking at Oldham and we'd have won. Jones got a head knock so fingers crossed 

 

[jamescolin]

36 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

Thanks TPH. Way better intro than I'd've managed. The job's yours 

The Peak District is lovely, but I'll be at POR on Friday.

Springer will be banned, but he's unlucky. But, as you say, he'll play v York anyway. As our main big man, let's hope his suspension is light 

Hopefully everyone else is ok. Obviously Reynolds is not 100% otherwise he'd've been kicking at Oldham and we'd have won. Jones got a head knock so fingers crossed 

 

Is the kick off 6pm? Shown as 3pm in the original fixture list. Both times by League Express.

[marklaspalmas]

14 minutes ago, jamescolin said:

Is the kick off 6pm? Shown as 3pm in the original fixture list. Both times by League Express.

It's at 6pm Colin. Will you be going?

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, marklaspalmas said:

Springer will be banned, but he's unlucky. But, as you say, he'll play v York anyway. As our main big man, let's hope his suspension is light 

 

 

Much will depend on whether he gets found guilty of Grade D or E (can't see it being lower grading than that for a forceful contact to the head offence). The former might only see him get 2 games (he'll have points added for the player having to leave the field injured, but will lose in  point for the act of having been sent off). However if he gets a Grade E it's a minimum 6-game ban.

The bigger problem is probably that under the new points system any points he accrues will stay with him for the next 12 months and would see an even bigger ban if he is found guilty again.

[jamescolin]

17 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

It's at 6pm Colin. Will you be going?

YES!!.  Only illness will stop me, I will go even driving in the dark.

[jamescolin]

All the best Mark.  Colin

[RobLambert]

58 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Really hope Reynolds is ok to play, even if he can't kick goals again.

Springer will be available regardless of his disciplinary outcome on Thursday but it might be the last time for a while (though my view of his red card having watched the head-on replay is that he hit the Oldham player across the chest and bashed him straight into Beckett's head or shoulder).

Let's hope Connor Jones is ok as he picked up a head knock, and though he carried on, he was substituted a minute later.

Despite conceding 5 tries (two of which came from high kicks) I thought we defended a bit better than for the last few weeks against Oldham - there weren't as many obvious gaps in the defensive line as there had been in a few of our recent games. But York will test us to the full, and on recent form have to start favourites.

Yeah I agree with your points re the game.  Just on the above....

I thought Reynolds was hobbling slightly for much of the game.  He seemed to feel his ankle when attempting his last kick in particular.  So I hope he's ok for Friday.

I've no doubt Springer will pick up a ban, not least because 'not guilty' or 'sending off sufficient' doesn't seem to be a thing anymore ?  The incident was the first thing I looked for on the replay because in real time it just looked ok and the reaction from the players / supporters suggested the same.  If you pause the replay just before the impact the Oldham player was in an odd crouching position and facing a wall of Springer and Beckett I'm not sure how he expected not to have some head contact.  (Also just before the sending off I'm fairly sure Hardcastle had the ball stripped on their line.  The ref definitely didn't see it but the Oldham players told him he'd dropped it). 

I may be wrong but I think Connor Jones came back on again ?

Yes I thought the defence was much better which seems odd when we conceded 5 tries but they were well executed. Structurally we seemed to look much better.

It was a shame we lost - for lots of reasons.  It was the best we've played this season.  Obviously the goalkicking was the difference compounded by the fact that Drinkwater probably had the best kicking game of his career - including (crucially) one off the post.  Hopefully our luck will start to change.

[marklaspalmas]

9 minutes ago, jamescolin said:

All the best Mark.  Colin

All the best to you Colin.

Rovers' longest serving fan.

[The Phantom Horseman]

10 minutes ago, RobLambert said:

Yeah I agree with your points re the game.  Just on the above....

I thought Reynolds was hobbling slightly for much of the game.  He seemed to feel his ankle when attempting his last kick in particular.  So I hope he's ok for Friday.

I've no doubt Springer will pick up a ban, not least because 'not guilty' or 'sending off sufficient' doesn't seem to be a thing anymore ?  The incident was the first thing I looked for on the replay because in real time it just looked ok and the reaction from the players / supporters suggested the same.  If you pause the replay just before the impact the Oldham player was in an odd crouching position and facing a wall of Springer and Beckett I'm not sure how he expected not to have some head contact.  (Also just before the sending off I'm fairly sure Hardcastle had the ball stripped on their line.  The ref definitely didn't see it but the Oldham players told him he'd dropped it). 

I may be wrong but I think Connor Jones came back on again ?

Yes I thought the defence was much better which seems odd when we conceded 5 tries but they were well executed. Structurally we seemed to look much better.

It was a shame we lost - for lots of reasons.  It was the best we've played this season.  Obviously the goalkicking was the difference compounded by the fact that Drinkwater probably had the best kicking game of his career - including (crucially) one off the post.  Hopefully our luck will start to change.

Springer actually got a "not guilty" last year when he was yellow-carded at Widnes for a similar tackle that was adjudged high by the ref but not the discplinary panel, so there's hope, but if you are found guilty of forceful contact to the head it can be a long ban. The Widnes coach had a right whine about it not being a red card in his post-game interview and put up a tweet that is still there suggesting if it had been on Sky it would have been red, it's still there today.

I saw a lot of people moan on FB etc about our defence again because we conceded 30 points so I'm glad it's not just me that thought we looked much better and less disjointed.

I've seen quite a few Oldham fans post on social media that we were the best Championshp team we'd played this season, hollow consolation maybe but a couple of weeks ago i wouldn't have dreamed anyone would say that about us.

[Featherstonerovers2000]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I saw a lot of people moan on FB etc about our defence again because we conceded 30 points so I'm glad it's not just me that thought we looked much better and less disjointed 

I agree I think we are slowly starting to turn a corner! Our attack is looking better and think we are staring have a lot more control of games unlike the start of the season 

[The Phantom Horseman]

Squad named (including Connor Wynne).
Akauloa for Stevens the only change I think from last week's 21.
 

 

[POR]

Only change  for the 21 is the returning Siti A for the newly departed Jack A

[fevnut]

FEV v YORK KNIGHTS: 21 MAN SQUADS

fevnut has published ‘Fev v York Knights: 21 man squads’.

We find it quite difficult to see the potential shape of the teams in the form in which the clubs publish the squads, so we choose to use guesswork, based on the teams in their last match, to set them out in the traditional manner running from fullback to loose forward and then subs.

Access the page by clicking on the link below.

https://bit.ly/3Gb1jKm

[marklaspalmas]

3 hours ago, POR said:

Only change  for the 21 is the returning Siti A for the newly departed Jack A

Where's Jack Arnold gone?

[Fevrover]

24 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

Where's Jack Arnold gone?

Goole Vikings. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

No Reynolds, no Gale, Jones partners Hampshire at half back. Lacking Reynolds in particular makes this a massively harder task.

 

Edited April 18 by The Phantom Horseman

[gazza77]

1 minute ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

No Reynolds, no Gale, Jones partners Hampshire at half back. Lacking Reynolds in particular makes this a amssively harder task.

 

With Turner on the bench, I'm wondering if we'll potentially see him on at some point and Jones moving to hooker.

[The Phantom Horseman]

5 minutes ago, gazza77 said:

With Turner on the bench, I'm wondering if we'll potentially see him on at some point and Jones moving to hooker.

Quite possibly, or if it becomes a tight game and goal kicking looks like being important.

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

I believe garbage is an apt adjective for what was served up in that half.

[The Phantom Horseman]

47 minutes ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

I believe garbage is an apt adjective for what was served up in that half.

Indeed...but...
THE SEASON STARTS HERE!!!!!

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

18 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Indeed...but...
THE SEASON STARTS HERE!!!!!

One hopes...