Oh boy, I really can’t wait for this season to be over!!

At Huddersfield we really did try hard and gave it our all, in fact we probably shaded the first half and it was only the fact that we continue to be clueless close to the line that saw us go in at half time not winning, but level at 0-0. I guess, looking back we weren’t that far off really but to have Westerman, Sneyd, Connor and Kelly missing would see any team in Super League struggle to score points.

In the end, a couple of quick tries off mistakes in the first few minutes of the second half saw us trailing 14-0 and our glaring inadequacies close to the opponent’s line meant that we would never get that back. We played better, we showed a lot more energy but had to defend too much and too many players are simply buggered.

It’s been a torrid few weeks and as for the near future, well I suppose that looks pretty grim. I find it hard to believe that there are any players left at our club who are not either out with injuries or playing on with them. I said it last week and I’ll say it again; thank goodness we are clear of the Middle-Eights, I mean to say, can you imagine what trouble we would be in if we were two rounds into that ‘group of death’ with our current resources?

Six defeats on the trot is not good news, but I can only see that run continuing, because for me it’s getting less and less apparent as to where we will get the players from to pull on the shirt and play in the remaining 5 games.

I, like you, I’m sure, just want the 2018 season to end!!

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Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear!
In the Tiger in Beverley after the game, we all raised a glass for a toast, as we hailed the efforts of the young kids in those two home victories towards the end of the regular season, against Widnes and Salford. For, without those four points we would have been in the middle eight’s and, with our current issues and on our current form, likely heading for the million-pound game at best.

It’s going to be a strange few weeks isn’t it? It would have been nice to think that those making the decisions on retention and possible recruitment would be casting a close eye over the player’s in black and white throughout the meaningless challenge that is, for us, this Super 8’s competition, and that in turn the players would be playing for their future contracts.

This would then be a time for players to make their mark and bag a place in the squad for 2019. However, that incentive has gone, because we have signed up most of our current players to long term contracts already. Indeed, some that we all thought might be off have actually been retained for another year, so there is little room for manoeuvre at all, and thus, some would say, little for the team to play for either.

Surely the imperative going forward had to be that we should put on some sort of show so that everyone starts to look forward to next season with some hope. That was the challenge that faced us and Wakefield were the first part of it but it’s sad to say on Friday night, we failed miserably.

Our performance was poor but our resolve and mental strength in that second half was awful. There was a lack too of any sort of courage or inspirational play and despite all the rhetoric that preceded the game, Scott Taylor apart, we looked like a team who all had new contracts and were safe for the next campaign and who thus had nothing to play for. In the 2016 and 2017 seasons we had strength, size, resolve and an unending will to win, all qualities that if they were on show at all at the KCom on Friday, were only possessed by our opponents in the last quarter; but it appeared to me, by us.

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It’s been a quiet, old week and after the recent defeats we have experienced, quite frankly ….. that’ll do for me!! However, after the last two glorious years it’s a bit hard to watch other teams getting to Wembley (and Tommy Lineham scoring the tries) isn’t it?

At the FC little news has been coming out of the Club at all, which I guess isn’t surprising, but instead of having a week off the lads have been in and working hard on turning their form around a bit. And, with still no indication of the league structure for next year coming forward either, the season grinds on and we now look to Friday and a chance for revenge against Wakey, a team who will come to the KCOM full of confidence, and intent on beating us again.

Will we see an improved performance after the poor showing against Rovers and will the score be different to three weeks ago at Belle Vue? Well, I bloody hope so don’t you? Still, hopefully it won’t be raining as much as it was for our last home game, but otherwise, with Hull FC of late, everything else is up in the air.

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