Another big game and another BIG, big two points and this morning how good does this look?

On Saturday there was more drama, more excitement and another massive dollop of relief and exhilaration on the final hooter, as once again everyone who attended in black and white got their money’s worth! I was just elated at the end, as the fans joined the players in another quite amazing celebration. In fact I was still buzzing 24 hours later on Sunday afternoon!

You know, as a FC fanatic who has none the less at times over the years become a bit of a ‘sceptical unbeliever’, I’m really enjoying this season! I’ve always loved the club, but have attended at times more through a sense of duty than anything else. However that’s all changed of late because even though we are probably still only performing at about 70% of our potential, the games are so rewarding and exciting and the players are clearly ‘doing it’ for each other in a way that I haven’t seen for years.

On Saturday once again it was just marvellous, marvellous entertainment and a wonderful experience to just be there. By the end I felt as wrung out as if I had played myself, but you can ask no more of an afternoon watching sport because what we again witnessed on Saturday was 80 minutes of absolute, full on passion from every one of our 17 players and long may that continue.

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Whatever the circumstances a win over the Dobbins is always, always worth a celebration!

Wow I’m glad that’s over, as all week I had worried about what could happen at Newcastle and by heavens, it almost did!!!!

By 5-00pm on Sunday evening the results thus far had all gone for us and it was with the knowledge that we would still be joint top whatever happened, that I sat down to watch a game in which I could see us ending up with egg on our faces. Pessimism in these situations is my sole coping mechanism really, but I’m allowed to be concerned, because experience proves that we all know what can happen in derby games don’t we? I watched as usual from behind the settee and even from there it doesn’t get any easier. But, we turned a poor performance and a potential local catastrophe into another win, which by ‘close of play’ saw us top of the league!!

It was, for the most part, a poor showing from the FC and although no one has a right to a win, in the end somehow, even as the favourites, we did! As all really good teams do when under the cosh, after conceding 16 unanswered points we found the means to claw our way back and win it and what a brilliant last quarter we produced. Three quick fire tries and then ten minutes of slowing it down, grinding out the yards and breaking the Dobbins hearts. That’ll always do for me!!!!!

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There were a lot of unhappy looking Pies around on Friday!!

Oh my word, what IS going on? At present I’m getting to the point of being ‘Gobsmacked’ by it all!!!

It’s not a word I use, but it’s the only one left in the thesaurus under ‘amazing’ that I haven’t already utilised this season! Why do words fail me? Well, probably because I simply can’t believe just what is happening at present, can you??

I’m sat here trying to write this in the early hours of Saturday morning simply because although it’s been over 4 hours since the final hooter sounded, I’m still wide awake and still so excited! I’m literally buzzing after what was another utterly, utterly fabulous display! I know there will be set backs and that it’s not always going to be like this, but you have to saver the moment, you really do!!

4 month ago even the most optimistic fan would have rubbed their eyes in disbelief had they been confronted with the possibility of these last two wins, (with back then, even one out of the two being pretty unlikely!) Where all this belief and confidence has come from heaven knows, but it is there in abundance and it’s certainly heartened us all and indeed filled us with at least a modicum of optimism!! That’s a rare commodity indeed amongst us FC fans! Wigan was the only Super League side Lee Radford hadn’t beaten as a coach: and now he has that feather in his cap too!

If the Saints game was a massive win in the context of the Cup, then this was a signature victory in the 2016 Super League campaign and so, after this latest round of games, everyone in the game is talking about just two things, Leeds Rhino’s and Hull FC ……and they are doing it for two totally different reasons!

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Totally and absolutely unbelievable!!!!!!!

That was impressive and I mean impressive, but maybe not quite as impressive as the scoreboard operator thought it was!!

In all the abject disappointment he’s got his 4’s and 7’s mixed up, bless him!

However, that victory was certainly as good as it gets and in positively tropical conditions a massive contingent of the FC Army watched in awe as their heroes absolutely battered the opposition before systematically taking the Saints apart to impart on the hosts their biggest defeat on their own ground for 3 seasons!

Most significant of all was the fact that this was the most important game of the season thus far for us and it was our best performance too; that’s what really good teams do!

It was simply superb and after all that has gone before in here over the years, I really can’t believe what I saw at Langtree Park yesterday. In fact by the last quarter of the game I was thinking that any minute I was about to wake up at home in bed!!!

You see for me watching it back after all the nervousness had subsided, it was a performance every bit as good as that famous semi in 2005, for like that sunny day in Huddersfield this too will live long in the memory of everyone who witnessed it!!

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Wow that was close but it’s another two points gained and against what is probably the best side in the competition.

Yet some still persist in playing it down, simply because we scratched about a bit at times and lacked cohesion for periods in the game. Quite frankly I don’t really care what the local media, the RL press and indeed our Coach says about that performance, because winning these games in those circumstances is what good teams do and despite all the doubt around the ‘process’, in the end it was breathtaking, enthralling and so, so dramatic.

Those of you who went to the game have to agree that you were, in that last ten minute, on the edge of your seat (again) and indeed who wouldn’t have been absolutely devastated had we in that last set dramatically missed out? It’s not the first time we have been under the cosh with a slender lead and the clock ticking down, nor will it be the last time either. It was at the time almost unbearable. However isn’t all this brilliant for those of us who have for so long tipped up every week, just wanting to be entertained, as once again on Friday a close encounter saw our hearts in our mouths as we simply couldn’t take our eyes off the match for a second.

We started well, but there were periods when we were far from great. However sheer guts, determination and passion once again somehow got us over the line, just as it did against Rovers, Warrington and at Saints! For me, last season, we would probably have lost all those games as we would have this one, but although we are playing at times below our actual potential, somehow, from somewhere, we keep finding a way to win.

Whether you side with the protagonists who play down our performance or with me, still buzzing after another great night at the KC, we should all agree, I believe, that in another glorious ‘heart pounding’ performance, we all got our money’s worth last Friday.

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