What a Wonderful Afternoon!! Does it get any better??

One of our own!

If there was one question on the lips of the rejoicing FC Faithful at the end of that fabulous demolition of Leeds, it was probably, “Where the hell did that come from?”

There was so much skill on show, but I’ll tell you where it came from, because first and foremost it came from the heart, it came from the wanting and the passion the team spirit and the belief. Want to see that animated into actions? Then just look for a moment at how long it took us to form the victory huddle at the end of the game. We waited and waited until every player had finished their interviews, then Gareth Ellis told it to them all as it was, the team were together for a moment in absolute solidarity as one and then the celebrations began! But everyone was part of it all!

The thing is when that team plays like they did on Saturday they are pretty implacable and as I marveled at what was unfolding in front of me I was so, so proud of the effort they put in and the way they won it for us lot singing ourselves hoarse on the terraces!! Yes, it’s great to be hailed by the media for our performance, yes, it’s great to be back at Wembley and yes, it would be superb to do Wigan and retain the Cup, but for now let’s just savour that moment for all its worth, for such performances and occasions are so rare and so fleeting.

You know, people will have been sat in front of their TV sets in Rochdale, Swinton, Dewsbury and Oldham wishing it was their team that was getting the accolades and plaudits after that performance and that were about to set off on the journey to Wembley Way. They know that although they can dream, it will probably never ever happen, but for us lot its real, its happening and it’s ‘the famous Hull FC that are off to Wembley’ AGAIN and we are, in the context of all those other fans around the game, so, so lucky to have a team like that!!

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PHEWWW!!!!!

……that was a close call wasn’t it? We just got home in a dour and at times frustrating game, but those two points were as precious as any we have grabbed this season.

On Friday night we just prevailed by the skin of our teeth, but boy we needed that victory didn’t we? It really didn’t matter how we got it, because we had to move forward to next week on a win and to, if we could, secure a top 4 spot and 4 home games in the play-offs, although in fairness the latter objective relied entirely on other teams slipping up. However, thanks to another desperately brilliant defensive showing in what was a scratchy performance against the Giants and a freak result at Leigh that saw Salford oblige us with a defeat, for now, on the journey that is 2017, its job done.

That of course hides the concerns we all still have about our current form and our perceived inability to score tries, but this game was always going to be a grind because we simply had to contain and frustrate a free scoring Giants outfit who were on a good run of results. So, on a sunny warm evening and to the calypso like accompaniment of a set of Huddersfield supporters who sounded as if they had pinched their mother’s pans and kitchen utensils and brought them along to the game, we just got home! It wasn’t pretty and at times in attack it wasn’t good either, but we still have that special togetherness that brings the will and tenacity that is needed to hang in such games. I would be a lot more worried where we throwing the ball about, losing concentration and collapsing when put under pressure.

As for the match officials, well listening to the observations’ of Chico Jackson on the way home, as he commented on how he didn’t think Mr Kendall got much wrong, then I’ll have to beg to differ on that one, because for me I’m afraid it was Leeds Rhino’s last week all over again! Mr K. had a shocker.

Still it was two points, the top four secured, no major injuries and now just the small matter of that game at Donny to concentrate on. Come on You Hull!!

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Friday’s was a poor performance in a game that we should have won! Yet I guess we never deserved to get the points because we simply weren’t good enough, particularly when it came to retaining possession, being creative and keeping our discipline. AND, in all those failings it’s not only the youngsters that are the culprits either.

You know, I could have cut and paste that introduction from any of the last three Diary’s really couldn’t I? I don’t like to be negative in here but I fear that I’m about to be, because at present we have no right to be in the top four, simply because we don’t deserve to be there. Quite frankly it looks to me now that the Cup is our best, if not our only chance of silverware this term, but more of that gloomy hypothesis later.

At Headingley we were certainly dominant in the first forty minutes, in that we controlled Leeds and kept them contained despite losing possession at regular intervals, but we couldn’t get more than one score on the board and were then nilled in the second half, when just one try would have got us home. Defensively we were great near our line, but shoddy in mid-field as once again we struggled to find anything in attack. There is little doubt too, that for the second week running it was a match that was there for the taking, against a team that were no great shakes themselves.

We know what this team is capable of and yet at present we don’t look like we can deliver at all and a Leeds team disjointed and disrupted by injuries beat us on a night when we could so easily have reversed the ‘Headingley Hoodoo’ to gain a psychological advantage for that semi-final. What a disappointing trip it was for the hordes of FC fans that made the journey to the West Riding and who, on the way back, must have been wondering just what Doncaster holds for us in two weeks’ time!

I might have to eat my words after a few more rounds and I hope that I do, but playing as we have over the last few weeks, I’m finding it hard to contemplate us winning anything at all this year. We are totally devoid of any attacking ideas and as far as discipline is concerned, too many penalties conceded and too much dropped ball is, ever week, our undoing. I have to say as well that as for our prospects going forward in 2017, for now at least, I’m worrying a bit, I really am! But hope springs eternal and a big win over Huddersfield will sort a lot out, however unless we improve significantly it’s getting that win that might prove a little difficult.

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I’m still pretty depressed after Friday!

That was so disappointing wasn’t it? It was all just such sub-standard fare really with several players giving uncharacteristic below par performances. In the rain at St Helens we were simply nowhere near where we should be at this time of the campaign and in hindsight last Friday, we didn’t deserve anything more than we got!

St Helens is never an easy place to go, but you can’t dress a pretty woeful performance up as anything other than baffling, at a time when we should be starting to build towards the end of the season and that big Cup match. We all know too that you have to be right on your game, wherever and whoever you play in Super League, otherwise the opposition will have you and on Friday night there could be no excuses, we were dissapointing. In fact, in a listless disjointed performance Hull FC were pretty unrecognisable as the team we have grown to almost count on in the last 18 months. Despite that defeat at Castleford, we had all taken some heart and had even felt positive because we just needed some of the same stuff we saw in the last quarter there, to get us home at a wet Langtree Park, against what was in anybody’s book, a pretty average St Helens team.

However, instead of building on that last quarter the previous week, we went the other way and it was a worrying development at a time when as a Club we should be looking to step up in preparation for the fights ahead. Instead with 9 games left to the top 4 play offs, we took a big step backwards. Thankfully we hold our 4th place spot because Wakey lost, but as the top eight starts to tighten up, that really is scant consolation.

Over the last few weeks we appear to have drifted from being the form team of the top half of the table, to looking worryingly flat and downright inept at times. The pundits in the printed media in general still rate us, but rugby is played on grass and not on paper and after a dire three-quarters of a game against Wakey, the same at Castleford and an awful 80-minute showing on Friday (throughout the whole match), my team are really struggling to impress me much at all at present.

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You can’t win ‘em all. You want to, but you can’t and on Friday night we didn’t, but in the end we went so close!! We handed Cas all their points, didn’t fire at all for 60 minutes and yet came within a whisker of winning the game. Disappointed? A bit! Downhearted, no way!

Saints will be a big ask on Friday but it’s doable and while I’m on about the weekend, perhaps you’ve already realised that there just might be a new book out this Saturday in the Club shops and here, EXCLUSIVELY for Dentists Diary readers, is a preview of the cover!

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