Friday 13th; unlucky for some? Well not for the 500 or so of us who made the trip to Widnes on Friday night!!!
After Leeds, (where we defended valiantly but woefully stuttered and spluttered on attack) it would certainly have been hard to predict that we would go on to score over 100 points in our next two games, but that’s being an FC fan isn’t it? At Headingley we defended valiantly but it was obvious we needed an attacking boost to kick start things and there is little doubt that after a couple of poor performances, for me, a few weeks ago relegation was a real threat.
I bayed in here for a new half back ASAP, because it was the only solution I and most other fans could see to solve the problem and I have to admit that when I saw Richard Horne warming up at Widnes he certainly wasn’t what I had in mind!! I’d lost sight I guess of the one thing that really wins you games in Rugby League; forward dominance! However they say in sport that confidence is everything and after scratching a win at London where we were nervous and still spluttered a bit, we took advantage of a week off and a chance to train on a couple of synthetic surfaces and simply blew Widnes away up front, in a fashion that was almost scary.
Granted we started the game with a lot more energy and enthusiasm than we saw for a few weeks a while back, but as the tries came the whole team seemed to grow physically in stature and confidence as the game progressed! All of a sudden we had pace across the backs and players that had run at defenders to make a point for most of the season were now running at the gaps to great effect. It wasn’t perfect in fact in the first half it was frustratingly imperfect at times, but it was a fine all round performance with some scintillating long range tries overshadowed for me by a forward display of the ilk that that we have not seen bettered this season. It was great to be there at a game that with hindsight was one of the best performances away from home I have seen for many a year. Can you remember the last time we went behind in a super league game, before scoring 56 unanswered points and did it away from home?