fevnut's musings #06: How do you feel?, Play-Offs and Nadine Dorries idiocy

  

How have you felt?

It was all going so well up until that day we went to Tottenham for the 1895 Cup final. We know that many Fev fans were confident but we weren’t so sure. Having watched a few Leigh matches on Premier Sports it was clear that they were playing very much better than when they came to Fev back in February and we had an excellent 28-6 victory.

Optimistically, we had the feeling that Fev would have learnt a great deal from that defeat in London from which we could develop and prove ourselves capable of not only beating the teams below us but become able to put on a much better performance against Leigh both on their own ground and at Summer Bash.

It was optimistic because we were well and truly beaten again three weeks later at Leigh.

Since then, we have sat in the stands at the following matches and felt very frustrated. The defeat against Batley was awful and the win last week against Newcastle was welcome but, despite the 58-22 winning margin, was not much better certainly from a defensive point of view.

There is no doubt in our mind that our backs are as good as any in the Championship and when the pack are dominant that gives the backs an opportunity to score a bucket load of points. But when we come up against an opposition forward pack that are able to hold their own with ours then we find ourselves in trouble.

Earlier on this year our goal line defence was very good but it has fallen apart. That’s not just the Leigh matches. It was evident when we conceded 26 points against Dewsbury, when we lost to Batley and yet again letting Newcastle score 22 points.

Of course, we have had awful luck with injuries and the latest to Mark Kheirallah is hugely disappointing.

Just as disappointing is the apparent loss of spirit in the squad. Watching them on the pitch their attitude looks very different to that we were seeing through February, March and April.

Let’s hope that the X-Factor returns soon!

 

Qualifying for the play-offs

Despite the poor performances over the last few weeks we are still very confident that we will make into the play-offs.

For the moment it looks likely that the 6 places will be taken by Leigh, Fev, York, Halifax, Batley and Barrow.

York had an unexpected slip-up at home to Barrow last weekend but prior to that had won 11 out of their last 12 Championship matches. Halifax have won 12 of the last thirteen the only defeat being at the hands of Leigh. Batley also had a surprise result last weekend drawing at home to Batley but before that had won 9 out of 10. Like Halifax the only defeat was against Leigh. Barrow’s form is much more mixed with only 6 wins out of the last 11 and they will be the ones having to look over their shoulder at Bradford and Sheffield.

 

Nadine Dorries:  idiocy and ignorance

As we write this all the news is about the departure of Boris Johnson but we hope very much that the next PM does not re-instate Nadine Dorries as Culture Secretary (which carries responsibility for sport).

Last week she made a speech in St. Helens about this year’s Rugby League World Cup in an event that was celebrating the World Cup’s wonderful Social Impact Programme.

Here’s a quote from her speech:

“I’ve always quite liked the idea of rugby league. My long-standing memory is that 2003 drop goal. I’ll let you into a secret. I think we were drinking Bloody Marys at the time. It was 11am but, wow, what a moment that was.”

She was, of course, referring to Jonny Wilkinson's drop goal at the final of the rugby UNION world cup. We really could do without a cabinet minister with responsibility for sport who doesn’t understand the difference between rugby league and rugby union.