Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Thu Mar 30, 2017 10:37 pm  

On Theo's head. That was the game there in the first few minutes. I expected us to lose tonight, Salford are a better side than we are now, simple as that. Having said that, we had enough ball and enough territory to win that game and it's so frustrating to see them again not even try to do so. After the opening up against Catalans and the controlled ambition we showed against Warrington, tonight was a proper kick in the teeth from KC. He's gone straight back to his horrific, ultra-low-risk tactics. Salford aren't a great side, they are solid through the middle and very motivated, with a couple of impressive individual players, particularly BMM. But we should have been able to take a few risks against them, throw the ball a bit. We only started to move the ball when it was too late. Keiron has no doubt already come out with the same nonsense he always does, that we were superb and fantastic and that it was the result of a halfback being out. It will have an effect, but our lack of success near their line was due to the speed of the passing, the movement of the runners and the execution and skill, not just because the guy providing the final pass wasn't there. Just incredibly poor attack.

For me there are no real positives tonight. I think tonight is the night to draw a line under Ryan Morgan. He's as bad as Leon Felton and as slow as Wello. I'd drop him now, simply no point dragging it out any longer. Same with Dom Peyroux, offers absolutely nothing. Get the kids in. At least then we can finish 6th with a bit of pride rather than banging our heads against a wall in frustration like we are now.

As for KC? Got to go. Simpy got to. Proved once and for all he doesn't have what it takes. He's seen two wins in two weeks from more expansive rugby. Yet tonight he's back to that rubbish.

Re: Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Thu Mar 30, 2017 10:51 pm  

At least you've got Percival and after last seasons disappearing act Walmesley looks like he's got his mojo back.
Not many other positives though, you really do need to find a way to get Lomax into the game.

Re: Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Thu Mar 30, 2017 11:07 pm  

Saddened pretty much nailed that.

There isn't another team in the league who could spend that much time and possession in their opponents' 20m without scoring.

The last 3 years we come back time and again to our poor attack. It wasn't coincidental that we looked better in the last two weeks as we started passing the ball. Tonight, it seemed like we thought the touchlines were ten metres either side of the posts.

Also, Morgan. Dear God. I'd been reserving judgment. He was chased down by Flanagan. Flanagan ffs!

I know we lost Theo, but Smith was also absent tonight, even though he was on the pitch.

Re: Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Thu Mar 30, 2017 11:23 pm  

I was as shocked as anyone at the lack of pace for Morgan on that break. However other than that i thought he had a pretty solid game.
As i personally thought when we signed him though he is more in the Damien Smith mold than Jamie Lyon.

Personally i was hoping to see Matty Fleming get a go as at the end of last season he was coming up with some good performances and scoring trys to boot.

Thought the game was a good tough match between two committed sides. We lacked the game nouse to open Salford up. Fair play to Salford on their defence . People need to remember that Salford is a side that defeated the "champagne rugby/entertainers" Castleford coached by the Super coach Darrell Powell.

I think part of our problem is as mentioned previously we are just too one sided. We really need to look at upping the attacking threat on the right. Morgan and Makinson while decent just lacks that cutting edge.

Re: Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Fri Mar 31, 2017 12:28 am  

So you have never seen a forward catch a back ? in all your time watching Saints or rugby in general? We took far to long to adjust to Theo going off,they shut us down in the 1st half as we were far to slow getting the ball out wide. Lots of players making errors tonight again. Reliant on our left hand side and when it gets shut down we have no idea what to do. Usual crap from Saddened,only thing i agree with is getting rid of Peyroux.

Re: Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Fri Mar 31, 2017 12:45 am  

When you watch the replay back Flash is already going at full speed before Morgan gets the ball. Morgan has to break stride to catch the ball that is slightly behind him,it's that slight stutter in his run that means Flash just manages to catch him.

Re: Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Fri Mar 31, 2017 2:08 am  

apollosghost wrote:

At least you've got Percival

As much as I think this guy is quality, his decision making tonight was abysmal.


Passes were on to enable scoring opportunities 4 or 5 times, but the wrong option taken.

Re: Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Fri Mar 31, 2017 7:23 am  

You seem overly reliant on your left side, and even though you were faced with two players playing out of position on that side you never made it matter at crucial stages. Salford's defense in particular has rapidly improved this year and we can score against anyone. Apart from the first game of the season against Wigan where we lost by 10 points we lost to Leeds by a blatant forward pass in the last minute and by two points to Wakefield after we imploded. We are not the Salford of yesteryear and fans of other teams are maybe still guilty of thinking in those terms.

I was surprised that your pack were not more effective, with the exception of Walmsley who looks to be one of the best forwards in SL imo. Smith seemed to be going through the motions, but Lomax is still class. KC's game plan for last night seemed odd. There was a lot of play being deliberately cut back with inside passes and I thought you could have been penalised a lot more than the one time for obstructing tacklers. It seemed doubly odd as Salford had full control of the ruck for most of the game and it was never going to cause many problems. It looked like he decided at half time that you needed to try and punch holes through us but the only one capable was Walmsley.

It took the sin-bin to wake your lot up to throw it around but it was too late by that point. As someone looking in you look like a good side that's disjointed and a little low on morale.

Re: Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Fri Mar 31, 2017 10:08 am  

Don't accept the Excuse for the lack of speed from Morgan, he is another weak link, he looks like a baby rabbit looking into a cars headlight whenever he is called on, Douglas is not much better, still can't work out why Captain Fantastic Wilkin was given such a contract extension, and then Matty Smith he just disappeared last night, at least they found a top which fitted Cunningham but he is clueless.

Re: Salford - Back to earth with a bump : Fri Mar 31, 2017 11:38 am  

Not sure having a pop at KC is the answer, I was at the game last night as a neutral and was more disappointed with the fans than the players