“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it!!”

….and we should by now have learned our lessons with regard to turning up over confident of our own ability, whilst at the same time under estimating that of the opposition. On that score the first few minutes on Thursday was certainly back to the future time wasn’t it? Some still look at anything other than a big win against Castleford as a bit of a disaster and yet they are a really class outfit and deserve a lot of respect.

How many times have we seen it eh? Getting our heads right from the moment the whistle went was always going to be the big test of our new found confidence, professionalism and focus and yet it transpired that there was, as we have seen so many times before, too much ‘self belief’ and too little application! In the end we weren’t bad and the game was a good one but we just weren’t as effective as we have been.

So,it certainly wasn’t a disaster and the breadth of skill and power in our current team will, I’m sure, see us win more than we lose this term! I’m convinced that it is going to be an exciting season and we will see some great games and indeed some superb rugby. For our part as fans, expectations were also running far too high; particularly for a team that has only been together for 3 games. However it was disappointing that in front of the biggest Thursday gate we have ever had at the KC, we were back to not rolling our sleeves up and doing the hard yards first and in the end we were beaten by a better drilled and more clinical outfit. However, as their fortunes ebbed and flowed, the cavalier approach made by both teams made for high octane entertainment, that kept everyone on the edge of their seats though-out the game.

When you take a utopian view of sport, the best teams should play every game (whoever the opposition), as if their lives depended on it. On Thursday I would argue that perhaps Castleford did and that they wanted it just that bit more, so that in the end the best team won. “We’re not as good as we thought we were” said Gareth Ellis and he just about summed it up. Now we move on and look for a response against Wigan!

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“We have a really good blend of personalities. We are quite a crazy bunch, but it’s good fun. At this time we are not overly confident and we certainly don’t think because a couple of games have gone well that everything is perfect”

So said Leon Pryce of the team and that’s good advice for all of us!!!

That quote is part of an interview printed on Saturday when our ‘veteran’ half back was asked what had changed at Hull FC this time around and there is certainly no doubt that team spirit and togetherness throughout the squad is a strong element of our good start. The camaraderie jumps out at you when you watch them play together or see them out and about in Hull, but we have to now approach Thursday’s game against Castleford with confidence but with care and focus too, because the Tigers are a team that will do you if you take your eye off them for a moment.

As Leon says, both players and fans mustn’t get carried away and with no game last weekend, this match is a real test of our ability to keep focused and not get in front of ourselves. Rovers was ‘Win it for the fans’, Salford was the big bang start of the season and Catalan the ‘no one wins there’ scenario, so we have had no issues with motivation thus far, but we’ve got to keep resolute in the bread and butter games too! I think we’ll win, we should have too much for them down the middle, but they’ll really fancy their chances of flying under the radar and we’ll be able to gauge a lot about our character as a team and our chances for the season ahead, from how we approach this one!

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What a quite amazing performance that was!!!! Aren’t you proud? Because I certainly am!!!

If I were to have one initial thought it would be that I am so pleased for Adam Pearson, for at long last all his investment, patience and all those months of frustration, look to be in ‘danger’ of being rewarded!!

Our owner would of course say that two swallows don’t make a summer and two games don’t make a season, but boy, come the early season break had any one of us been offered 15 tries from 10 different scorers, 80 points scored against 6 tries conceded and never having been behind in 160 minutes of rugby, We’d have snapped their hand off!! It was a result that as far as the margin and the performance was concerned was way above my wildest dreams. Yet there was so much more about it than the tries, because our control, tenacity, defence and game management for the full 80 minutes did at times make me wonder if I was really watching Hull FC!

So, well done to Lee Radford for an almost perfect game plan, well done to Adam Pearson for paying for a charter flight, well done to Jamie Shaul for sacrificing the chance to be at the birth of his first child, well done to every member of the 17 man squad on duty and a massive well done to the fans who made the unseasonal trek to Catalonia!! Those of you who went should be congratulated for your efforts and as far as I’m concerned you all deserve a bloody medal!

So I guess for me, the players richly deserve their 4 days off while for us lot, wherever you watched that brilliant victory in Perpignan, isn’t it’s great to be an FC fan at present!!!

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All last week I wondered and fretted a bit as to whether everything could continue in the same vein as the Derby performance, but in the end it was a……

A GREAT CROWD, A GREAT ATMOSPHERE AND A GREAT WIN!!

Another Diary that is a pleasure to write!

Of course, in the end, I need not have worried, as an amazing hour of power rugby (again) blew the Salford team away in an encouraging performance that must have left a lasting impression with everyone that attended. A couple of pals coming out at the end, no doubt steeped in recent ‘tradition’, grumbled to me about that last 20 minutes and anything that indicates a performance that’s at all ‘patchy’ is of course a worry. However this is the start of the season and the time when even the good teams look a bit scratchy, as they fight to gain cohesion and grow into the new campaign. But, we’d scored 8 tries and they were executed with such style that I’m pleased to report that after Round One there was a deal of real hope around again. With so much power and skill on display, last Friday was without doubt ‘Job done’ and we move on to an immensely difficult task at Catalan, with those precious first two points in the bag. Win your home games and your flying!!

Most of all however, I wanted to see a good game and a response from the stay away fans after the Rovers drubbing and got both. In the end some of the rugby was quite amazing and although many talked about the sheer power that was about up front, there were some superb skills on show as well. Top stuff, a good result and a great attendance which had the place bouncing!!!

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AND SO IT BEGINS!!!!

AND, cometh the hour, cometh the fans? Last week’s stuffing of the Dobbins was great, but now let’s pack out the KC on Friday!

The Clubs single biggest asset as we enter the 2016 campaign.

After 19 weeks and 17 editions of this twaddle at last the wait is over!! Super League 21 is here and we’ve six new signings on board, a massive annihilation of the old enemy behind us and now a home starter to a 2016 campaign, which is really important to us as fans and perhaps even more critical to Adam our owner! Excited isn’t a word I’ve used much in here for ages, but boy after last week, (although I’m desperately trying to suppress it for fear of the ‘same old’ outcomes manifesting themselves again), excited is genuinely how I feel!!

All I would add is; yes in the Derby you could almost taste the enthusiasm and belonging out there on the field, but there should be some credit for us lot who were there too, as the whole thing was cranked up several notches because of the bond some of the players immediately made with the terraces and vice versa. That was a new experience altogether and in that context Friday is bloody massive and you just have to get there if you can, but here’s a warning; if you don’t like hyped up rallying calls, bags of hope and a bit of oversized expectation, I’d stop reading this right now!!

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