Match thread: Championship Round 15. York v Featherstone Rovers. Sunday 29th June 2025. 3.00pm.

[marklaspalmas]

Huge game coming up.

We took the league points with a great 2nd half performance. But of course York won at Wembley. They are one of the Championship's top teams.

Looking at the league now, Toulouse, Bradford, Oldham and York look firm for the top 6. I think Halifax and Barrow will back themselves , but maybe on the slide a bit. Fev and Donny both playing better now than previously and Widnes still not without hopes. I think the bottom four now will be the bottom four in September.

Hopefully we didn't pick up any injuries v Halifax. I've not heard of any. So those 17, plus the out of favour Hatton, Olpherts and Akauola will be available.

There's talk of Stevens being ready soon, Turner not sure, and Williams, O'Connor and Tuimavave longer term absentees

 

[The Phantom Horseman]

MLP is right that this is a huge game, but oddly enough as far as our rest-of-season prospects, it's probably not quite as important as the Barrow and Halifax ones were. If we had lost those 2 games, we would have been 7 points behind Barrow and Halifax and our chances of the top 6 would have looked remote, the season possibly looking over at the halfway stage.

AS MLP says, though, we're now firmly in the mix for a top 6 place, and if we can beat York we'll be just 2 points behind them and maybe even a top 4 finish wouldn't feel fanciful.

AS MLP says it's hard to see Toulouse, Bradford, Oldham or York missing out on the top 6, and I reckon Doncaster might end up above Barrow and Halifax, so I reckon the away game at Donny on August 17th could be a really important one

Difficult to predict this Sunday's game. We had our "Wembley hangover" game against Hunslet whereas York did remarkably well to go to Bradford and win the week after Wembley. However they don't seem to have been as impressive at Widnes, going 18-0 down before coming back to win comfortably in the end - without having seen the full game it's hard to know how much losing Gilmore, Johnston and Owens to injury in the first half damaged Widnes's chance but it can't have helped.

Hopefully we're buzzing for revenge, and hopefully we're on one of our "going days" as opposed to the Hunslet debacle, if so should be another cracking match.

[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, 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/44dDDxj

[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.

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/46gdwrU

[fevnut]

THIS WEEK’S REFEREE: YORK KNIGHTS v FEV (Championship Round 15)

fevnut has posted ‘This week’s referee: York Knights v Fev (Championship Round 12)’

Access the information by clicking on the link below.

https://bit.ly/3ZLtVkp

[maksymilian]

What's parking like at the LNER? Never been before.

[georgeb1]

8 hours ago, maksymilian said:

What's parking like at the LNER? Never been before.

dead easy , and free , park and ride(monks cross) next door to LNER just follow the signs

[POR]

Here we go

[The Phantom Horseman]

Think it will be surprising if we don't announce the same 17 as last week on Sunday.

[sentoffagain2]

    Agree although i think we will have to improve on last weeks performance to win.Even game again although i would have York as favourites  and giving 4 points start on handicap.We let a couple of soft tries in last Friday and were exposed on the flank for another which happens even in SL who are full time.

[Phil Briscoe]

Ye I don’t think we’ll quite have enough to win away at York but I’d be delighted to be proven wrong. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

One area where we need to improve from the Wembley game (apart from the obvious one of taking our chances late on) is in terms of being more competitive in the overall arm wrestle.

I was surprised when I went through that game in detail afterwards, because watching live I thought it was a case of they bossed the first half and we dominated the second half, but in terms of metres gained they outgained us by 1593 to 1266. That probably indicates they won more collisions than we did and had more effective line speed and were a bit quicker around the ruck, and if it's the same on Sunday we will be up against it.

Conversely, we actually created more clean breaks than they did at Wembley despite the overall metres numbers, and if we are more competitive in the "grind" this time we might have a chance.

 

[fevnut]

York Knights v Fev: 21 man squads

fevnut has now published ‘York Knights v Fev: 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 last week’s teams to set them out in the traditional manner running from fullback to loose forward and then subs.

We also include a chart showing the leading scorers for both teams.

Access the page by clicking on the link below.

https://bit.ly/4lt4JHG

[fevnut]

York Knights v Fev: 21 man squads

fevnut has now published ‘York Knights v Fev: 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 last week’s teams to set them out in the traditional manner running from fullback to loose forward and then subs.

We also include a chart showing the leading scorers for both teams.

Access the page by clicking on the link below.

https://bit.ly/4lt4JHG

[fevnut]

York Knights v Fev: 21 man squads

fevnut has now published ‘York Knights v Fev: 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 last week’s teams to set them out in the traditional manner running from fullback to loose forward and then subs.

We also include a chart showing the leading scorers for both teams.

Access the page by clicking on the link below.

https://bit.ly/4lt4JHG

[FR23]

One change, king out akauola in 

[haskey]

Are you guessing ?

[agoodsteakdinner]

Fev game on YouTube today

 

[FR23]

18 minutes ago, haskey said:

Are you guessing ?

Nope, spoke to a player yesterday. King rolled his ankle Tuesday at training 

[The Phantom Horseman]

32 minutes ago, FR23 said:

Nope, spoke to a player yesterday. King rolled his ankle Tuesday at training 

That would be a huge blow. He's been our best forward over the last couple of months in my opinion especially in his defensive contact.

[FR23]

28 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

That would be a huge blow. He's been our best forward over the last couple of months in my opinion especially in his defensive contact.

Big blow with akauola only able to do 5 minute stints 

[Phil Briscoe]

Indeed. Isn’t he supposed to be a semi professional athlete? Or even full time in his case? You’d have thought and expected that he’d have spent the time nailing his fitness issues.

[The Phantom Horseman]

Suspect that in 27 degree heat we'll get 1 short cameo from Akauola and some long stints from some of our other middles. Think we're up against it today, but would love to be proved wrong!

[mightyship]

No complaints from me on the result today. York were the better team - especially in defence where we struggled to break them down.

for me they are the best team we’ve played all season - thought they were great at Wembley and then again today. They will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season I think 

Fev tried hard but they were better in defence and more inventive in attack 

one dispointment was some of their players goading the Fev end at the final hooter - not very classy 

on to next week and another toughy against Barrow who I note beat the Bulls today
 

 

 

 

[The Phantom Horseman]

7 minutes ago, mightyship said:

No complaints from me on the result today. York were the better team - especially in defence where we struggled to break them down.

for me they are the best team we’ve played all season - thought they were great at Wembley and then again today. They will be there or thereabouts come the end of the season I think 

Fev tried hard but they were better in defence and more inventive in attack 

one dispointment was some of their players goading the Fev end at the final hooter - not very classy 

on to next week and another toughy against Barrow who I note beat the Bulls today
 

A good summary, I agree with everything you have said there.

Although we have beaten them at our place and only lost in golden point at Wembley, they're better than us at the moment, and as mightyship says they're probably the best team in the comp at the moment, certainly in terms of consistency.

Agree with the comment about taunting the Fev fans, there's generally a fairly respectful relationship between the clubs and there's no need for that.