I was proud of our lads on Friday. The result was no more than we could have expected if we were honest, but we gave it a real go and surprised the much fancied ‘Wire’ with a first half of energy, passion and youthful exuberance, which had a modicum of skill thrown in too.

I actually though we had a chance at half time, but I should have known better. Miracles do happen, but not that often and experience proved that the Wolves would come out in that second half and put some points on us and that’s exactly what in the end they did, but in the mean time we gave them a hell of a scare didn’t we?

For me it was a game we were destined to lose simply because of the players we were missing. That I’m afraid is a fact we had all better get used to in the next few weeks, for it isn’t the last time such a scenario will be played out ‘before our very eyes’.

Hats off to everyone who played though, because it was an excellent first 40 minutes in which there were some great showings from the young lads. There’s bags of hope for the future in some of those players and they will have all benefited no end from the experience, I’m sure of that!

All in all, it was a great effort and one that belied the number of players we had missing, in what was, before we started, a game I never thought we had a chance of winning. We got no points, but were pretty glorious in defeat. But oh boy, next week now looms and that’s a worry indeed…….

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Newcastle’s St James Park was again turned into a sea of Black and White, as the FC fans chanted, “The City is Ours, the City is Ours’ as thanks to a great and heroic effort, in pretty difficult circumstances, we recorded our seventh successive Derby victory.

2018 so far shows two Derby’s down and two Derby’s won. One with twelve men for almost all the game and the second with a back line that read like a who’s, who of the young, the recovering and the aged!

I was proud of that performance and well done to everyone who took part! However yesterday the FC gained what was for me a very unlikely win. I have to eat a bit of humble pie and some of you will have watched that win and thought, ‘Oh Ye of Little Faith Wilf?’, but beforehand I just thought that Rovers familiarity with playing with a host of injuries over several weeks would trump a Hull FC that were just getting used to having around 9 players missing.

As I said to a pal at the end, “Yeh, to some people Lee Radford may not be a lot of things, but no one can deny he gets them up when he needs to”.

I know you all think I’m a worrier who spends most of his time looking downwards rather than up, but with our current adversity, I struggled to see where the next win was coming from and before the game I knew we probably needed another 4 or 5 points to avoid the middle 8’s. Some may not like it but whoever you are in reality that has to be every teams first goal and with changes apparently coming at the end of the year and Leigh and Toronto in such good form, no team can really afford to be down there at Round 23. Once that has been avoided, then we can start to look upwards. But, believe me, those were still two precious, precious points! It was a scratchy win but what a win just the same.

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Absolute bloody chaos!!!

An ill disciplined and pretty disgraceful final quarter from both sides, a hat full of injuries, one or two bans looming and a refereeing display that quite frankly beggar’s belief. Oh and we are through to the quarter finals of the Challenge Cup as well! And so, as the County Road Centre of Excellence looks more like Hull Royals A&E and the builders are in extending the naughty step, we all look back on what has been a few unusual days, even for an FC fan who thought he’d seen it all.

Our tenacity and fortitude were the watchwords as we won the trophy in the last two consecutive seasons and they were on show in abundance again at Featherstone. However, that battling spirit was completely overshadowed in a final quarter that would have been a disgrace had we been watching it from the touchline at amateur level, never mind it being broadcast live to the nation on Sky TV!

I’ve seen some shambolic performances in my time, but to finish with 9 men and to get suckered into that spoiling, niggling mindset again, for the second time in three weeks, left me cold really. It was win at any cost and we did it, but in the end it actually did come at considerable cost both for now and the future.

Ok we are through to the quarter finals and our fighting spirit has to be commended, but for this fan there was precious little else to take from the game at all. Fact is we were the Super League team and we should be better than that, furthermore we should have ice coursing through our veins when the oppositions hackles are up and we should stay cool and calculated in the face of such intimidation and abject refereeing. On Thursday, we showed neither quality, so much so that when the final hooter went I was relieved, disappointed, furious and a tad embarrassed, all at the same time.

Those injuries, added to the ones we already have, could well be season defining and as reader Richard Hall said, during the game, “I fear the longer this goes on the shorter our season becomes!”. Profound words indeed and Rovers must be licking their lips at the chance they have now been presented with for the Magic Weekend match, but at least the holders were again in the hat for the quarter finals, if that is, we have anyone left to play in them!

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WE’VE GOT ALBERT KELLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

And what a massive signing, playing wise that is, there will be a lot of long faces in the East but he’s ours for another two years!! However, more of that later, because first I have to ask the question …..

WAS SATURDAYS WIN THE BEST DISPLAY SO FAR THIS SEASON?

Well you know, I think it maybe was, for it was certainly an amazing turn-around from last week’s debacle in France and how the players and the fans wanted it and rejoiced as the final hooter went and victory was ours! The result was our sixth home win out of six this season, with, after years of trying, the Black and Whites, on and off the field, at last making the KCOM Stadium the fortress it always should have been. All of a sudden teams won’t want to come visiting to what is now a hostile environment and true to our famous spirit in adversity, once again it was the fortitude and stoic nature of our endeavour that led to the West Yorkshire Clubs downfall.

With no video referee to scrutinise ‘the far end of a fart’ of every score, the game flowed, the referee was in control but kept it moving and as a team from 1 to 17 Hull FC were simply magnificent. Castleford were absolutely out on their feet by the end, as we overcame a couple of poor errors that led to their two tries, to control the game almost throughout. Without those two unfortunate mistakes, (a ball left to bounce near our line and a fumbled up and under) both perhaps down to our last line of defence, we would have nilled them. It was a great defensive showing and a much steadier performance all round.

There will be bigger battles and harder mountains to climb, but on Saturday we all witnessed a brilliant showing and could ask for no more. Well done to everyone involved, because I loved every minute of it!

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