I am gutted. Wakefield were there for the taking, but we coudn't get up to the level of the Leigh and Salford games, and fell tantalisingly short.
I will leave comments about Wakefield's performance to their fans, all i will restrict myself to saying is that despite being below our best, we had every chance to win, but we blew it. Yet we came so close, which makes it worse - much worse. Had Addy kicked the two goals he missed, we would almost certainly now be in SL.
But as he had missed the first one, it was the wrong decision to go for the second one. They were tired, we were on attack, we had six tackles to go, against a team which would be frightened to death and ready t panic, knowing if in that set they conceded, there was no way back.
I really don't think that had we tied, we would have been favourites in extra time and the fact of the kick being so way out wide, and the mess Addy had made from wide earlier, meant it was a serious risk that taking the kick would cost us the game. Whereas taking the pen gave us a great chance for glory.
Without having had much time to think about it, my first impressions are that despite the fact we could and should have won, we had a few players ff the pace. Addy didn't play well, in the sense that he didn't create much and was pretty anonymous . You can't blame him for the kicks, but I would have put money on Shaw to get them.
Siejka is no good. He tries, but his decision making is poor, his kicking is often rubbish, and he is frankly a liability. That was him in a key game, and he never came up with one single play, he never put anyone through a gap, and he just didn't look anywhere near a good player. I've had it with him. No Smith to play against, it was his moment, and he fluffed his lines.
Lauaki shouldn't be anywhere near the team, because he did what he always does, with the exception of he didn't give a penalty away. Fleming deserved his chance.
And that is just about it. I thought most of the rest toiled manfully all day, the defence was great for most of the time, Ferguson was superb, Purtell was not at his best but still very good. Nielsen was decent. Blythe on the wing wasn't my idea of heaven but he did nothing wrong. O'Brien - (why was he spelled? In this game of all games?) was pretty effective.
It would not have taken much at all to turn this poor Wakey team over today, but with no scrum half and half a Gaskell, our toil and effort just lacked the clinical final touch. We spent plenty of time in ther 20 and near their line - but we neer looked dangerous. Siejka is rubbish in that position and his pathetic attempt at a grubber, (I nearly fell asleep while he mustered it) almost cost a try. He akss no questions of the defence but worse, I think he worries the rest of the team, as he doesn't give the impression that he is confident, or that they understand what he's doing.
Why was Lowes moaning about the ref? I thought Silverwood had a decent game. Even doing a Ganson and going to the VR illegally, doing us a favour.
The biggest shame was that Gaskell wasn't playing. I understand why we took a chance, but it simply didn't work, he was undercooked and hesitant, lacking in confidence, and never offered any real threat. It could have worked, but it didn't. The real Gaskell sadly was not on the pitch.
Having read about some of the post-game comments, I fear the worst. For starters, there will be no team as bad as Wakey next year, so that was our main chance, and we blew it. For another, it remains to be seen whether we can keep a relatively settled squad but the fact is that we would need to improve it by acquiring a couple of heavyweight forwards and an actual scrum half, as well as keeping our few SL class existing players, but the clear ominous impression I got was that we have been paying above our weight this season, and that next season, Mr. Green isn't going to do it. Which means we can't significantly strengthen and which leaves us vulnerable to the best players going. I fear we will lose O'Brien and Gaskell and if we do, then that is that. I hope I'm wrong, but we will never have a better chance again. IF (big if) we kept the main part of the squad together and strengthened where needed with genuine quality that we would be a significantly better team in our second season. But whether good enough to beat next season's worst SL side I seriously doubt. And if my fears are well founded, then we will just have witnessed the start of our next demise,because without your Gaskells and O'Briens, there is simply no hope.
