Dont get me wrong I like him, at full back he brings the ball back well but has no defence, on the wing hes not doing anything, the odd glimmer of something but he seems out of place, next week they have Johnston who is fast we need someone like Penny if we want to have a chance against them, yes penny is not great defensively but he has improved and offers something going forward.

Don't Wakey also have a flyer called Johnstone too? Wakey won't take this game lying down & a performance like yesterday will save Wire fans having to book for Wembley.

Johnstone has been out for a couple of weeks. Not sure if he will play next week.

No idea what you do with him, for me he as a confidence issue when the ball is coming at him. Do you give him a spell at Rochdale so the pressure is not on him to perform at SL level, I don't know but something as to change for the lad or he is heading for a big crash.

Johnstone has a slight fracture in his Tibia, highly unlikely to be playing in the Semi.

Is this the same Russell that many lorded on here as the best player in P&B just a few short months ago

He is and always has been limited at fullback, on the wing he is just lost

Yesterday when Ratchford went off I thought Gidley didn't really impress at fullback either

Against Wakey if Ratchford doesn't play then Matty at Fullback and Penny on the wing

We need the fastest and most mobile players out there next week in their most familiar positions Johnstone, Miller and co will really test our defence and especially our backs

Well Gidley could hardly have impressed at FB yesterday as he wont have trained for that.

It's one thing not training in that position but it's another thing looking like you've never played that position

He should have been in familiar surroundings, he is a specialist at fullback and after all has no 1 on his back

In Gidley's defence, almost everything a fullback does in attack now is running off one of the halfbacks. Since he's played all year in the halves, he'll have no fluency running off a halfback and getting the ball on someone else's terms rather than his own. Yeah he's a specialist fullback but that doesn't automatically give him an understanding of how his teammates are going to give him the ball. Playing fullback you cover the most ground out of everyone too, so he was probably knackered as well.

Far as I could see Russel went to fullback when Ratch went off.

They swapped in second half.

You might be getting confused because of his positioning, he looked liked he was playing second row defending those 3 tries Ormsby scored on his wing

I get it with the familiarity of a position but you have to adapt quickly and yesterday he didn't do that and the fullback role definitely exposed his age and general condition at the moment with the amount of ground you have to cover, he was blowing out of his ass