First half killed us. Penalty after penalty. I've never seen any team hold down like saints did but we got nothing. The fight, thought one at least should have gone from them, about 4 of their men ran in. Delighted with how we played its just so frustrating we didn't get anything from the ref to give us a chance. 4-4 with 20 to go.

Yeah gutted too. We really gave them a game until the turning point of the sending off and sin binning. A good performance from the lads and they should take comfort from the fact that they competed really well against one of the best / most fancied teams this year. Hopefully our steady progress will continue and we'll be able to shock a few teams...And there's always chance for revenge at Langtree Park 3rd May!

Our defence has improved a lot and if was not for Child's, we would have beat them.Cross was silly what he did and deserved a sending off but to sin bin Clarke too was a joke.All saints players piled in and no sin bins for them.Linesmen missed or ignored high shots,a.d Meli last touch into touch.Looking good for the season.

Agree Cross was silly and it was probably worth a yellow but never a red, St's over reacted and caused the brawl but obviously only Clarke was involved in that, if only what you've stated was all Childs got wrong but it's far from it that has to be the worst refereeing performance ive seen in over 35 yrs of watching the game. He spoiled what was a close keenly contested game and turned it into a farce

I've often stuck up for referees on here but I can only guess James Child wanted Saints to win today such was the bias on show.



They were allowed to hold down every single tackle without punishment and we were pulled up for the smallest thing. They knock on and kick the ball out and it's missed.



Yet we were still in the game against all odds, so what does he do? Sends two off. One probably justified, one, a brawl that only one team is punished in? Unprecedented. And only then do they break us, one after a ing knock on.



I'm livid, and I honestly, seriously, think we should lodge an official complaint.

Childs is a born prick. He put us on a team warning and then did all when we transgressed a minute later. Can't really complain about the sending off but he wouldn't have walked of Saints hadn't all run in and for him not to punish anybody from Saints for turning the incident into a brawl was shocking. Saints holding down unpunished and knock ons not given were an absolute joke.disappointed but not disheartened.

You were on a team warning by then weren't you? That's possibly why Clarke was binned and nobody from Saints was.



I am not sure we would have won the match had you kept 13 on the field although we might have. We did finally start to play with some kind of cohesion in the last 15 minutes so maybe we have found our mojo at last. But I'm afraid Cross did deserve the red and not a yellow. He was straight around Wello's throat. Wello doesn't go down for show. He may flap his arms around a lot and moan at the ref, but he has never been a player to play injured. He was down because he couldn't get up. And it looked really bad from the East Stand.



Incidentally, you look a better team this season even though it is only very early. I think you will win quite a few more than you did last year. I hope Phelps isn't too badly injured. We lost Perry and Hohaia to injury during the match.

Child's has had a few good games but more often than not its a guaranteed shocker! We had Hicks last week and he spoilt the second half making it stop start and penalising one thing but then not another time. It's time to face reality that they are not up to it.

Widnes fans and moaning simply goes hand in hand.



If it isn't the RL hierarchy, it's their coach, sometimes referees or whoever else they put foward as a conveinient scapegoat for the shortcomings of their very average club.

Ben Cross lost you that game today, not Childs, and it was a red card...Yea he was crap, but for both teams. You were the best team today and if you would have kept all 13 on i think you would have won. The punch up seemed to wake us up and spark us into life. Think you'll finish top 8, maybe top 6 this year if you carry on playing like that. Good Luck.

Cheers mate. On the team warning thing, we probably were but we were incensed that Saints appeared to be lying on at virtually every tackle (Hohaia being the main cuplrit) but it was us who ended up on the warning. After the gobe Childs had put us on the warning we did transgress soon after but he did nothing which says to me he doesn't know what he's doing so I'm unsure if Clarke went for 10 due to the warning - can a ref decide when he is going to bin somebody if a team warning is issued or does itneed to be on the next transgression?







Maybe so but Childs ruined it as a spectacle. Why bin Clarke and no Saints players? Sure, Cross might have deserved to go but it was Saints players who ran in and created the brawl so surely one of your lot deserved a spell in the cooler too?







Fuck off Bellend

Yes, I rather think that Brown has reinvigorated his tackling approach from his early days with Hudds. I don't know whether you watched Superleague at that time as Widnes had yet to return but Hudds were expert at holding down just long enough: 'controlling the ruck' I believe is what it was called! But I suppose that is all we had going for us since we couldn't pull off an attacking move all match really, except Gaskell and his dummy!





To be honest, I have no idea! It was just a guess. I think you're right about the team warning thing. That's how Ganson approached it anyway. On Clarke's binning, others have said that apparently he gave some verbal to the referee but Andy Wilson in the comments after his match write up said it was for his role in the brawl (apparently Andy spoke to the match commissioner afterwards). So it could be that Wilkin will get a ban if he was involved (I'd be content with that if he was involved not least because this is the second consecutive week he's been involved in a fight). To be totally honest I couldn't tell who was involved. From my view in the East Stand the brawl looked more like an RU rolling maul! But I did get a full on view of the high shot and that was a red any day of the week.