Boy I enjoyed that one!!!

What an amazing victory against all the odds that was!!

If ever there was a time when the FC fans travelled ‘More in hope than expectation’, this was it!! But as my pal Sarah said straight after the final hooter, ‘On this occasion, hope overcame expectation”. 

I’m in danger of being over the top again here, but why not? That was for every true FC fan a most unexpected victory and after the announcement of the team before-hand, it was one that exceeded everyone’s expectations.

The Coach and players had been quiet all week, whilst the social media from Warrington was, I thought, a bit arrogant yet I guess that’s understandable from a team that are starting to become the self-styled ‘Billy Big Heads’ of the game. We all hoped that it would get a response and I suspected that  something was stirring down at County Road!!!

You must have felt it too and so it was that with around 9 players missing, our resolve was unyielding and Lee’s game plan spot on. We followed it to the letter, battled for each other to grind it out until every one of the players was out on their feet; yet always believing that they could do it! As the much fancied opposition got more and more frustrated some of the backs to the wall defending in that second half, particularly inches from the line, was nothing short of super human. In fact, some of their massive pack were shaking their heads as they got up from being hit by some of the smaller FC lads.

Smaller guys maybe, bigger hearts definitely.

Pretty it wasn’t, but well done to the team, to Lee and to all those who went. This will once again (and this time for all the right reasons), be a display that will be hard to do justice to in here, but it’s going to be fun having a go

That old Cup Magic is Back again!!!!!

You’ve got to be in it to win it and we’re in the hat for the quarter finals, two games away from Wembley and what’s more, our passion and wanting is back (although what’s still pretty baffling now is how it went away altogether last week only to return in abundance 7 days later!)

In the end, it was the old scrapping, cup fighting FC that saw us unbeatable in the glorious 2016 and 2017 Cup campaigns that suddenly manifest itself once more on Friday. Despite blowing them away in the first quarter, it wasn’t our best ever performance, nor was it that cultured and at times it certainly wasn’t flowing, but that special, ‘all in it together’ fighting spirit was back and it was great for every FC fan to witness.

We came out energised and buzzing just as we have against so many teams in the cup in the past. Our forwards hit the ground like a steam train and rolled right over the much fancied Castleford pack. That saw the Tigers rocking and panicked into mistakes, which thankfully we capitalised on, just as we had done against Rovers. 

However, then, when the tries dried up, we found the strength the passion and a Plan B that we always seem to find in Cup games. That attitude, so different from last week, saw us keep our shape, defend like hell and tough it out. It wasn’t a good Castleford performance by any means, in fact you had to feel for their fans when at times in the first half they looked like us last week!!

However, we had a plan to unsettle them and it worked and what’s more, unlike last week, in the end we had the wanting and grit to both out smart and out muscled them.

Paea and Taylor targeted their big front row and rolled right over them, whilst they both bottled up Watts perfectly, Houghton then buzzed and goaded them around acting half, our wingers were so much stronger and tougher than theirs and in Sneyd we had the consummate game manager, as he led us around the field ably assisted by his generals, Albert Kelly and Jake Connor.

In the end it was so good to get a win, but after last week it’s even better to report on the return of the desire and passion that we so obviously missed against Catalan, how long it will stick around is anyone’s guess, but battered and bruised it was job done and we could look forward to 8 days off and the Quarter Finals!!

Words Fail Me!!!

I don’t really feel like writing this journal at all this week. I know a lot of you read it and some even enjoy it at times, but I feel guilty to even put my thoughts into words, because at present, I really can’t find anything at all positive to write about that game on Friday. I know all the excuses and the ‘reasons’, let’s face it we have heard them trotted out time and again, but that was disappointing to say the least.

Those who weren’t there will no doubt read what follows and say I’m over reacting and being too doom and gloom, I mean, “Let’s face it we did have 17 players out!” On the other hand, perhaps those who were there will have had time to digest some things and gloss over others in their minds and probably won’t agree with me after they have had a couple of sleeps to get over it. I love the Club and the players and everything to do with Hull FC but, right now I think myself that what I have just witnessed, was one of the most passionless performances we have seen from an FC team for a long while.

As a team we are so up and down, its just unbelievable really!

This week we were certainly down, so don’t read on if you want to be enthused and excited because no one who sat through any of that, will, right now, be feeling anything but the same dejection and frustration that I’m feel. Regular readers know that I write this from the heart, usually straight after the game and thus whilst I am still if you like a bit ‘raw’, so sometimes it is so far over the top its euphoric, whilst on other occasions, such as this, I am despondent and totally frustrated. That’s being a fan and buying into it, if we didn’t care so much and couldn’t take such doses of disappointment, we wouldn’t go would we?  But by the same rule we pay’s our money and as such have every right to speak our minds and this week I’ll be doing just that!!

I’ve got my lap top on my knee and a bottle of Bud on the table, its 10-30 pm, the game has only been over for an hour and I’ve seethed about a massive opportunity lost, all the way home!!!