A brilliant Display!

Our first top four scalp this year and I might regret saying this, but for me this week marks the point when perhaps, just perhaps, “The FC ARE back”. It might take some time, we ain’t the finished article and there will undoubtedly be setbacks, but you can I think, at last see where we are heading.

What a great game it was, I was so excited and loved every minute. Although at times it was tense, you somehow thought throughout that our defence would hold out. What a turn round we witnessed too, because there will be few teams who come back to win at Warrington after being ten points behind..... twice!

What were the two most memorable moments for me? Well for firstly it was watching Horney and Ellis ‘telling ‘em’ (on the TV after the game) what they had to do to Rovers next week and then during the match when that ball went behind Richard Whiting and he waited and waited with Warrington all over him before he dropped on it to ensure he got it right and didn’t fumble it close to their line, on the second tackle. I said “That’s the turning point” and for me watching it back again it was! It was a small point, but we could have lost the ball, while instead we got a roll on, he scored on the next but one play and the rest is history.

It’s not ‘the end all and be all’, we got nothing but two points and you’re only as good as your next performance (and we know who that is against), but Boy Oh boy what a good night that was for me and for the Hull FC Army in general and after some early season negativity on here, what a pleasure it is to write about it!

Oh and I had a chat with Adam Pearson this weekend and there’s a bit about what he had to say this week too!!

As the only Hull team left in the competition, the Quarter Finals beckon!

Unlike league games, where week on week improvement is paramount, all that matters in matches like last Friday’s, is that you get over the line and win, and you only do that if you want it enough.

In a stop-start game, spoilt for the FC as an attacking spectacle by two debilitating injuries that saw us have to dig deep in the rotating forwards department and a referee who started well and became bemusing by the end, it was nevertheless a fine display. Defensively we really had to dig deep and it was as good a back’s to our line rearguard action as I have seen in a long time. The ‘Wigan’ spirit returned and we thwarted a Wakefield side that have looked really good in their last few matches, however the casual/neutral observer would I think consider the game as one that we never really looked like losing. But that wasn’t the view of things from where I sat!

Of course, the reality is that most of us ‘fanatics’ are not casual observers, far from it. Being 16-0 up at half time still saw me concerned and throughout the second half I was clock watching and despairing as a string of penalties and a few mistakes saw us spend most of the half in our own 30. We are certainly galvanising into a strong and focussed unit, where the team spirit and will to win shines through. In the end, thanks to the continuing adventures of a rejuvenated Richard Horne and some slick break away play, we won the second half and came out worthy overall victors, but the biggest plus for me was that we didn’t just ‘want it’ we wanted it desperately and as much on the field as we did on the terraces; you can ask no more than that!! We could have so easily done ‘a Leeds’ and ‘choked’ as they did at Huddersfield, however our resolve was strong throughout and we came through.

A win in sudden death rugby is all you can ask for, we got one, its job done, Rovers go out, we move on, and I breathe a little easier.

Two more points, some great tries an easy win and despite a few hiccups and a bit of a stuttering start, in the end the crowd enjoyed another good display of enterprising rugby, tough defence and even a couple of 40/20’s!!!!

It was without doubt another good display and a score line that most observers who weren’t there would feel looked ‘easy’ (and of course it was, being in effect all over ten minutes into the second half) but the game itself was so much more. There was a listless and niggly first half, a confident Bronco’s team who played at a good pace and a good standard for the whole match, another refereeing display that was, well, mystifying at times, two purple patches of class rugby that were wonderful to watch and as many 40/20’s as we have previously scored in a full season. Furthermore for the first time this year we witnessed both flanks getting the service needed to provide a balanced approach to attacking the opposition’s line. It was great entertainment and any feelings of deflation in the crowd at half time after that stop-start first half, were spectacularly blown away in the first 20 minutes of the second.

Now of course its sudden death and a real tough looking hit up against Wakey, but at least this fan is starting to enjoy his rugby again and perhaps, even starting to believe Millers on his way!

It’s not often you leave the KC after a defeat and see everyone smiling and ‘pumped up’ but that was the case on Friday. OK we didn’t get the two points but what a great game and what a great effort from the FC. I was proud of our lads and the way we played, the intensity was as good as it’s been for years, the wanting undoubted and with a bit more luck or even a goal kicker it would have been the reversal of the season. If we could guarantee that level of spirit, passion and excitement every week, then the crowds would pour back to the KC.

I’ve been watching Hull for 55 years and I’ve known much more disappointment and false dawns than I have known joy, but I genuinely enjoyed Friday as I at last started to ‘believe’ and understand what Peter Gentle is trying to do.

In three years under Rich Agar we saw Danny Houghton come through the ranks from our junior development and precious few others. In the last two seasons that scenario has certainly changed and now we seem to be awash with youngsters who all get a chance, fit in seamlessly and go on to make a place their own, for me their performances in a pressure cooker of a game was on Friday, the big plus. Of course if we go back to our old ways against London this week, then it’s just another false dawn, but if we can repeat that intensity on Friday, it could just mark something of a ‘genesis’ and we can look forward to a big second half of the season; that in my opinion, marks just how good we were against Wigan!!

Well it was job done and in the end a really easy win with no pressure for us lot and of course that’s just how it should be.

Once we had tempered the exuberance and enthusiasm of a well drilled Crusaders outfit, the score was as we all predicted it would be and never ever in doubt. These games are always hard to report on because we all expect to win and whatever score we do it by, it’s still really not enough. However we missed a fair few conversions and it could easily have been well into the 70’s so we have to be happy with that.

It was great to see a good turnout of visiting fans and to hear their chants and applause and their lads certainly didn’t let them down. To see their Directors on their feet for the chant of “Stand up for the Crusaders” did a lot to hearten this old cynic! The high spot had to be the game time and performance of our youngsters, but we were much too loose at times and although it’s hard to gain much insight from these matches, we’ll have to do a lot, lot better on Friday.

I here apologise in advance for me later in this Diary taking the opportunity offered by a quiet week at the Club to expound my theories and increasing worries about the state of our game and the future of Rugby League in this Country. You only have to look at the attendances at this week-end’s rounds of the Challenge Cup, to see how that once great competition never really gets going until the semi-finals, when years ago it was the top attraction of the second half of the season and for me in many ways Super League is heading the same way.

Potentially disastrous, hardly sensational, but adequate, effective and controlled and with 9 first choice players out, 2 more precious points!!!

With such a young team on show for the purist it was certainly a focused and committed performance as some of our younger charges showed maturity beyond their years. Gentle commented afterwards that he thought in training last week that his young guns were coming to the end of their run, so it was a good result. The fact is that late Broughton try, spectacular though it was, just skewed the score because for long, long periods, like against Catalans last week, it never looked like we would lose. Obviously Salford team were buoyed by the appointment of new Coach Noble and our enforced changes through injury could have seen us slip up, but the maturity of our young forwards was great to see and many in the home team were blowing for a tug before the end.

I have a bit to say in this week’s Diary about gates and the crisis that is unfolding at both ends of the Super League table and boy it was never more apparent as it was on Saturday at Salford. In their shiny new, small but none the less pretty impressive Stadium, Salford’s home gate (2000 estimated) was abysmal and it looked from where we sat, squashed into the end third of the East Stand, that we probably outnumbered the home fans.

The good Doctor and Brian Noble certainly have a deal to do to get the crowds back, but for us it was job done and the record shows two points gained, although believe me, we will have to be in a lot better shape injury wise to do anything at all against Wigan in two weeks time. At present each week it’s about facing the issues and the injuries etc. and doing what is necessary to win and get two points.

Keep those cameras away!!!

We are still unbeaten when not live on Sky, that’s the good news, but the bad is that we’ve been on the TV a lot this season!!

However that’s two wins on the trot, another improvement and in the end a feeling of job done. Catalan at times looked tired and disinterested, but at others were full of resolve and tenacious defence, while our own rearguard was pretty amazing throughout compared with what has gone before. There were a few alarms and at half time it was still very much in the melting pot, but in the end the energy and persistence of our much smaller pack, against the ‘giants’ of the South of France, paid off and we won comfortable or as comfortably as we ever can.

I don’t enjoy these games against the Dragons, I never have, whether it’s the lack of atmosphere or their spoiling niggling tactics particularly on the ground, I don’t know, but I saw nothing yesterday to change my mind on that score. Still we move on to Salford gaining in confidence but continuing to pick up injuries as Shannon McDonnell and Danny Tickle were the latest to suffer. Of course, if you’re going to succeed these are the matches you have to win and so as I said in the first instance, it was job done.

Away from yesterday’s match it’s certainly been an interesting week across the river, with a record defeat followed by the headline story in the Mail about both Hudgell and Crossland running out of patience and cash at Caravan Park. Usually these ‘toys out of pram’ incidents over there in the badlands are just that; storms in tea cups, and rarely do they ever amount to anything but listening to Hudge on the radio last night, he is certainly throwing in the towel at the end of the season citing him losing his appetite for the fight. He also indicated that he is having difficulty seeing the Club get any further without a bigger, regular and annual cash injection.

Played 10 points 8...still a bit of a disaster really, but yesterday was a heartening afternoon for the dispirited but dedicated Faithful who made the trip to Wakey. A first away win, the emergence of another starlet, plus a much better attacking display were without doubt much needed. However I still can’t help being really concerned about the nature of the loss to Rovers which was in the end pretty predictable but at least yesterday we had something to cheer and it gave us a happy journey home.

In the Derby there was no lack of effort, everyone tried (although perhaps some more than others) but it was down to a lack of leadership and a plan, there was no structure, we were poor on the ground, played the ball slowly, ran around aimlessly and all that against as poor a Rovers team as we have played for years. We had a few players who understand what a Derby is all about, they had 17. They got in front, we lost any semblance of confidence and resorted to dumb rugby and so, from where us lot were sat at least, it ended up a complete shambles. In the end it mattered so much to a few of our lads but to the rest it was just another game, to us lot looking on and fretting it was everything.

A structured approach has to be the answer when injuries bite. In a season where the much maligned Richard Horne is waiving two fingers to the protagonists that bayed for his head when he re-signed and is far and away our best player, the problems are still there, but at least yesterday proved that we can get over them. It certainly showed the difference a bit of confidence can make. At Hull FC it’s hard to be a fan. With just three games to go to the halfway point of the season, it’s the poor old supporters who have coughed up their hard ‘earned’ after being told to Believe, that are once again on the front seats of the roller coaster that is following the team we love.

Richard Horne and Danny Tickle avert a crisis ....just!

In London a good last quarter masked a stop start introspective sort of performance and whichever way you look at it 6 points from a potential 16 just isn’t good enough! I’ll take the point...I’ll take any point in fact. I’ll be getting complaints from readers I can see, but for me in the bigger picture of us at least gradually improving, there is nothing to really celebrate in that draw in London.

We are constantly told that the team have apparently been working ‘tirelessly’ on improvement and in the Hull Daily Mail on Saturday morning the whole malaise of our season was put succinctly and in a nut shell by this simple statement, “The aim is to make sure those improvements shine through at The Stoop today, with Hull identifying the game against the London Broncos as a turning point which can kick-start their season”. I’ll leave you to decide if you think we have made that turn.

Ok the state of the pitch meant we had to re-jig some of our pre-planned attacking play, but you can blame the conditions as much as you like because every week we have a new excuse, we ain’t short of them, and in fact if we had as many points as we a have excuses, we’d be top of the league. But its 13 v 13 and the Bronco’s were better than us in most if not all departments for most of the game. It was only a big effort in the last quarter and some panicking in the London defence that got us home with a point.

It’s depressing and you have to feel for Danny Houghton because if everyone puts a stint in like he does, then we win every week, but of course they don’t. Pitts sitting on the bench for long periods and Tom Briscoe looking lost at full-back point to some strange coaching decisions and quite frankly it looks to me as if we are in for a close examination in the next two games and I don’t feel convinced we’ll get that much from them on that showing! Despite an abysmal display by Rovers last night, I approach this Derby with less confidence than I have had for ages!

No complaints there really I suppose, but needless to say this fan was pretty disappointed again after Saturday.

We could have won, but it was down to a fast and incisive play maker and we haven’t got one!! We need someone who could make the difference in attack, we had two almost over the line in the winter, but we failed, we still need a 7 and sadly that’s a glaring fact. We played well, but as per the last few seasons, still pose absolutely no threat in the oppositions 20. We were almost ‘playing safe’ at times and need a lot more in attack than our current “Give it to Holdsworth” policy affords. However that said, we gave it our all, the lads went for it, the effort and sweat was there, no-one shirked a thing and everyone gave their best and we can’t complain about that!

In the end we were undone by a forward pass that might not have been given on another occasion, another blatant Huddersfield one that wasn’t given, two misjudgements by youngsters and a missed tackle at marker by Ben Galea and another youngster. These kids have to learn and the only way they will is by playing, so we have to get on with that. It’s those little things that teams play on and that’s what makes the difference isn’t it?

In the end that’s what presented the almost faultless Giants with a win when for long periods of the game we matched them and their massive pack down the middle. The thing is of course you have to do more than that to beat good teams. Leeds, Wigan or Warrington wouldn’t have done any better than we did in defence or driving the ball forward but they would have had a lot more idea in attack. We just tucked the ball under our arms and crashed forward aimlessly.

That result of course makes next week so important and a game that could well be another of those potential ‘nightmare’ matches takes on massive proportions. Still only 4 points off second, but 5 points from a possible 14 just isn’t good enough is it? We need to start winning.............. and quick!!

Thank goodness for that!! Another week another crisis but after a few tough weeks on the FC rollercoaster this one ends with an ‘up’, a tight passionate team performance, some great tries and the first time we have nilled a team in Super League at the KC! Surely that really has to be celebrated doesn’t it?

“You have to go through some tough stuff to get things out of your system and there’s certainly strength in adversity”, said Peter Gentle, after a loss at Widnes, twits on Twitter and the sad circumstances surrounding Brett Seymour, all transpired to guarantee that the season of catastrophes continued.

However, we answered those problems in the best possible way with a resounding win and when you looked at Cas’s record so far this season it was a fine result for us. It wasn’t so much our attacking that impressed me, scoring 52 points is great, but a big fat nil in the other column is so much better. Twice in the second half after the game was won, we chased back to defend that ‘whitewash’, when breakouts which were both potential scoring chances, saw us pull off some great last ditch tackling through a real never say die attitude.

It won’t be the most significant win this season and Cas were I thought found wanting at times, strangely too I don’t think that it was for me at least, quite as convincing as the score suggests, but the passion and team spirit on show was worth the admission alone! Friday night rugby in the mist the rain and the lights, a big crowd, a great atmosphere and a big win, don’t you just love it?