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?

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400 editions of this rubbish!! Can you believe it, I blooming can’t!!

No game this week (so no defeat), less stress for this particular fan and perhaps a little time to reflect a bit! Firstly though, at this milestone for the weekly ramblings of a hopelessly, obsessive FC fan, please allow me to say that my appreciation for the 16/1700 of you who read this blog every week is almost impossible to put into words, it’s just amazing and thanks so much for your continued support and encouragement! If anyone knows we’re all in this together, then it’s certainly me!!

Every week I marvel that anyone actually reads this waffle, never mind takes the time to get in touch, because in the end, it’s still, as it was in the first Dairy all those years ago, just the scribbling’s of an average supporter who is Hull born (and FC by the grace of God) and who just loves his club. However if I’m honest, with over 1.4 million words, 400 editions and over 600,000 reads to date, it has become something of a weekly ritual that has in many ways taken over my life.

It’s not just those who read it on line either, because over the years I have heard from dozens of fans who don’t have a computer and who receive the Diary in hard copy from their families and friends, its pinned on staff notice boards, given to elderly family members to read in the traditional way, posted through letter boxes and some less fortunate supporters even have it read to them, sometimes whilst in hospital. It has even encouraged a few more elderly supporters to invest in a ‘tablet’ computer! I have heard of it being left on trains for unsuspecting readers, comforting the seriously ill, connecting the exiled, pacifying the irate and indeed absolutely infuriating the Dobbins, all of which bring me great pleasure. All this support is extremely humbling and something that, when I started with 60 odd readers, I never imagined could ever happen. Everyone is by and large very kind, and it’s hard at present to see how I could ever give it up, even if I wanted to.

This edition is a particularly ‘milestone’ for me, and something, when I started back in 2005, that I thought I would probably never ever get anywhere near. I hope, this week you will allow me a bit of self indulgence and, in a repeated Codgers Corner, a personal memory of probably the most exciting game I have seen in almost 60 years of the soul destroying process that is being totally immersed in Hull FC.

So, here it is, the latest Diary, with all the usual stuff, a bit of navel gazing and some of my favorite past pictures. Although I might not always get it right (particularly last week when I put Tony Cotson the Club Chaplain through the spell checker and turned him into the little bloke at the end of a rowing 8) and I have undoubtedly infuriated you (and the Club Chaplain) a time or two on the way, once again a massive thank-you to everyone who has stuck with me and so kindly let me into their lives every week for the last 9 years.

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Thank goodness for that!!!

‘Every picture tells a story don’t it’

“These sides down at the bottom are fighting for their lives and they’re fighting for their livelihoods too. You can see that in their performances and I think maybe that’s the approach we need”, said Gareth Ellis who on the day led from the front, and knocked himself out trying to get us over the line, however in the end he saw a double image of his team come out of the hole that is 4 straight defeats with a well earned and much need win. There is little doubt we need to fight like that for a couple more weeks but for me 16 points will get us out of the late season bottom two scramble and after that we can I hope, all start looking upwards instead of downwards again.

Make no mistake about it, Adam Pearson and all the folks at the Club knew just how important it was to get a result and that thankfully is just what we got! They are a poor team, as poor as I’ve seen in Super League, something that is certainly borne out by the fact that as they crashed to their 15th defeat of the campaign the Bronco’s equalled the worst start ever to a Super League season by any club. But, by heck we needed those points, we had to win and although at the start of both halves it was undoubtedly hard to watch, in the end we got through and we got them. In our current plight everything else is academic.

For a couple of weeks now we can all sleep more soundly and we just have now to fiddle a couple more wins, including hopefully one in the Derby, to survive so that we are guaranteed a part in the fiasco that will be the Super League next season; financially for our owner and indeed our very survival as a Club, I honestly believe that is an absolute imperative!!!

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