fevnut's musings 2025/#20: Batley, Barrow and Morgan Smith

 

 

In the days leading up to last weekend’s game against Batley we were wondering just what sort of attitude the coaching staff and players would take to this fixture.

Obviously, we don’t want any more injuries before Wembley, but on the other hand we really do need to build up our Championship points.

We thought they got it just about right. Blitz them in the first half and then be more relaxed in the second and take off any players that need to be cosseted. So, it was no surprise, after building a virtually unassailable half-time lead, to see first Ben Reynolds and then Ryan Hampshire being rested.

What we saw both against Oldham and Batley was a vastly improved spine with Caleb at fullback, Ben and Ryan at halfback and Will and Connor at hooker. Earlier on in the season we had doubts about the value of having signed Will, but he seems to get better with each game and against Batley he made some good carries from dummy half. We never doubted his value in defence, but we were wondering whether he could deliver the sort of spark you want from a hooker. Perhaps it just took him time to settle in or maybe his game was affected by the merry-go-round of halfbacks with whom he had to develop a playing relationship.

 

James Glover had such a good début. What a pity he can’t play against York at Wembley because he is cup-tied having already played for Sheffield in the 1895 Cup this year. It wasn’t just his two tries, he made a major contribution to several of the tries scored by other players and he, too, was solid in defence. It was almost as if he was a happy lad, at last playing at the club for whom he is a fan as well as a player. 

Other big plus points from the game were the return of Brad Day, the continuing good performances from Clay Webb, the apparent lack of new injuries and the fact that Batley’s best two players were Luke Cooper and Dane Manning (both ex-Fev!). 

 

Barrow

In our early days of following Fev to away matches we remember being confused that the match against Barrow was to take place at Craven Park. Fortunately we realised, before we set off, that Barrow and Hull KR’s grounds had the same name and we did set off heading North West rather than East!

It won’t be an easy game, and we will be interested to see who gets into the squad for this one. We think it should be our strongest possible one. Of course there is a risk of injuries and anyone who gets a bit of a knock should be taken off but the team needs as much time as possible playing together after all the chopping and changes we have been forced into earlier on.

It's always said that Barrow is a hard place to go to, and the stats bear that out. Fev and Barrow have met 48 times at Post Office Road and also 48 times at Craven Park. In those 48 matches at home we have won 38 but when we have travelled to Barrow we have only won 18. That's almost 80% wins at home but only 47% away.

Barrow seem to be a much stronger outfit this year than anyone (other than Barrow supporters) predicted. All the pundits thought that they would end up in the bottom four but how wrong they have been.

After 11 rounds of Championship fixtures they have never been outside the play-off places and they have been lying second on four occasions.

 

Morgan Smith

 

Rumours have been circulating recently on social media that we are about to sign Morgan Smith. We always take such rumours with 500 pinches of salt but that doesn’t stop us from pondering whether it would be a good move. We think it would be a very good move IF it doesn’t end up plunging the club into further financial problems.

Like many Fev fans, we were sorry to see him go after the 2022 season but fully understood his desire to play in Super League. Neither in his years at Wakefield or Hull FC was he able to cement a starting team place and he is now at Sheffield Eagles who seem to be heading for some big changes to their squad.

After what we have suffered this year, it would be great to have Ben Reynolds, Ryan Hampshire and Morgan to cover the halfback positions and Morgan is also a useful asset at hooker as well.

There is, of course, also Calum Turner who is quite capable at either halfback or fullback but it would seem that the coaching staff are reluctant to use him. They hardly used him even when we had a long period of suffering from a dearth of proper halfbacks.

Once upon a time the Fev team was overwhelmingly made up of local lads. Another plus if we were to sign Morgan would be the strengthening of the local element in the Fev squad.

We repeat, we have no idea whether the rumours are true but we hope they are.