Another close one, another disappointment; but a level of effort and sprit that, had it been sustained throughout the season, would have seen us a lot further up the League. But most of all, with the pressure off in the league now and little to play for, it was a performance that afforded us a bit of hope!

It was a much better showing and a good game to watch, exciting at times and tense at others with bags of effort and pride, but we should have won shouldn’t we? When you watched a disjointed, out of sorts, mistake ridden Leeds scramble and battle for a win at Salford on Friday you realised that in the end no-one is good every week, but when you’re not, that’s what good teams do AND therefore it follows that at present, we are far from a good team!!!!

I was quite relaxed and enjoyed our game (a demeanour assisted no doubt by the loss by Bradford last weekend and the end of their Court case fiasco) but it was certainly tense at the end and overall for those there and watching at home on TV, pretty good entertainment. In fact had we been sitting at around 6th in the league and going reasonably well we would, (having lost both halves and playing arguably the best attacking team in the league), have taken that point without concern! Of course we’re not in that position and grumbling is the new hobby of most FC fans, so it was all doom, gloom and ‘the ‘bloody referee’ again at the end!

The moaners do have a point of course because with a 14 point lead these are the games in which you have to shut out the opposition and press on to hammer home the advantage. But we seemed to fade and our blunted attack doesn’t do the ‘hammering it home’ stuff does it? So, I guess for me If it proved one thing, it was that with such a shortage of class halves around, the fact that Adam Pearson shelled out around £120,000 for Sneyd does at least guarantee that, whatever we do with him and however he goes for us, at the current time we have signed the best young half back around! We really can’t ask more than that. The challenge for our Coach next season is to get that same impact out of him that Cas. have got so successfully this year.

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Well another fine mess and another morning that finds me dazed, disappointed and bemused! But at least Bradford lost and how sad is that statement!

A defeat at Wigan was pretty predictable with a depleted side, but the procession that led to 56-10 was hard to take. For me it’s the lack of any sort of energy or verve in our play that is of most concern. We were told back in March that, “It’s not how you start but how you finish” and teams like Wakefield, Rovers, Catalan and Salford are all stepping up their efforts as the end of the season approaches, but we seem to be just fading to a whimper, rather than ascending to a roar.

It was a depleted Wigan outfit that lacked a lot of the spark they have shown in past seasons, but in essence we never really threatened them much in a performance that even left the Wigan fans scratching their heads afterwards and asking just what has happened to the FC of old.

We’re all trying to have patience, all trying to ‘Understand’ and all trying to hold the line, but boy is it wearing thin. It was just too easy for a Wigan team that was at best a bit patchy and what a relief that was because for me, had they been at full throttle, then they would have topped 100! The ability to make the telling break has been missing for weeks, but now after it hasn’t been forthcoming, right across the team and indeed the terraces the enthusiasm is waning and fast!

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“Its same interview as every week, we have a right crack but unfortunately we are just not quite there”

So said Lee Radford, the man with the plan, to which I would add, yes it is the same interview, but this week we were for long periods nowhere near being ‘there’ Lee. In fact it appeared to us lot who made the trip to Salford that for 55 minutes or so there was simply no plan at all!

Still the Bronco’s are down and Bradford lost again, an occurrence that is becoming the highlight of my Rugby League week at present!!

As an obsessive and at time somewhat demented fan of the greatest RL Club in the world (who sadly never play up to that accolade) for me the games up this season and so as we flat-line towards the end of the campaign with no chance of a presence in the play-off, all that really matters to me now, is getting to a point when it is mathematically impossible for Bradford to catch us. London can’t do that now and the Bulls would have to win all their games (unless the high court intervene) and that’s of course all dependent on us not winning another game (which however is eminently possible, isn’t it?). Next season however won’t be so kind on us, because the 12 place Super League with in effect 4 teams relegated will be brutal and that’s something I’ll be looking at in more detail later in the Diary.

As an ordinary fan I don’t ever want to be one of those folks who goes on Radio Humberside or sits in the pub and writes their team off before a game has even been played, I have to be there and full of hope when the FC run out, but I have to say although that won’t change any time soon, I’m getting hacked off with our current demise. I feel so sorry for the hundreds who as always made their way to Salford to once again be left flat, angry and dejected by an abject performance that until the last quarter showed not one bit of enterprise with ball in hand. It was shocking and although I have always said our Coach should be given a chance to change things, anyone who was there on Saturday night will I’m sure agree with me when I say that those 22 points just papered over the cracks of a display that was at times totally devoid of any sort of direction.

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Welcome back to the looney bin, as the Diary returns after its summer holiday!

I have to say first and foremost that despite a loss on Friday it was for me an OK experience, I say that simply because it was great to be amongst friends back home at the KC, with the lads playing on a Friday night in front of a big gate. However all that said, it was the same old, same old again wasn’t it really? We witnessed a performance that lacked the necessary nous or organisation to get us home and we sustained two injuries to critical players at critical times which helped make it another wet depressing evening, in what is turning out to be a pretty depressing season.

I was really looking forward to watching a game at the KC and despite the atrocious condition of the pitch and the ‘usual’ weather it was good to be back amongst my pals. However when I left you with my last diary after a great and heartening win at Widnes I had a bit of hope, but now, although we tried hard and showed lots of spirit, once again we didn’t have the guile and inventiveness to open up the ‘wankies’ resolute defence. They soaked up any pressure we exerted and waited their chance to pounce. Looking at the remaining fixtures the top eight is all but gone for me now, and with the bottom two still a way off, it’s probably now a case of us flat lining towards the end of another bitterly disappointing campaign. ‘Relegation will bring the crowds flooding back’, I don’t thinks so do you?

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