Oh don't get me wrong, the recent results have been very disappointing, but it seems a few people got a little carried away earlier in the season when we were sat so high in the table. It was obvious that when we picked up injuries we would struggle, especially when we had a run of fixtures against top opposition like we just have.

We may not make the playoffs or we may turn it around, to be honest just being in contention at the moment for me is an achievement.

A number of players are out of form, not just Whitehead, can't understand why Donaldson was dropped, unless he had an injury of course. A number of players don't look fit and I do wonder if a few players are being forced to play with injuries, Scruton and Foster didn't look right last weekend.

Just back.
Honestly, what can you say about that?
Firstly, what a shocking view away fans have at Craven Park now. I really hope it is temporary while the work is going on, but it appalling. I don't know how they have the front to charge £20 for that.
As to the game, we played dumb, big time. Giving away stupid penalties to give them field position and then untimately a try. Yes "homer" Hicks gave us nothing, but tough, makeit hard for him to penalise us, not keep doing the same ruddy thing! Bombing at least three pretty easy chances, kicking out on the full at least twice, and so on. With 15 mins to go, just 4 points down, attacking their line with 3 tackles left, did we really kick the ball straight into Dobson's arms? Unbelievable.
And then gifting them another straight from the kick off. Unbelievable again.
I don't know what has happened to this team. If we carried on doing the basic right I think we would win, but we can't even seem to do those.
I think we are in free fall out of the 8 now to be honest.

I assume Sammut and Bateman both injured? I hope they are not serious, they looked about our two best players in the first half.

Very disappointed today.

Can't do the basics? Hmmmmm I wonder where we have seen that before?

All season I said it was between ourselves and the two Hull sides to complete the 8. After Friday I reduced that to one Hull side we are battling with. After today, make it zero. We can't go do so why not give some youth guys a go now? Gotta be better than some of the she-hite we have at the moment.

As for Francis Cummins? Needs to start earning his wage IMO.

Sammut looked like he got a dead leg.

That's preliminary prognosis from club medics too. Sounds hopeful he'll be ok for next week.

Always was, still is.


Not sure about that, we were far better this week, and led for much of the game.


The penalty count was about 50% of the reason for the loss. It did seem a bit like a home penalty count, but I didn't see any particular penalty that I would take particular issue with. I don't know what the count was but I reckon we got penalised maybe twice what they did, and those 4 or 5 extra sets of six and extra 50 metres will have had a huge influence on what was a very tight game.


We had some rotten luck too, and given that we got in position to score on several more occasions, and did all but score, means it was up to that point good and effective play. Just let down at the ery last. But we created many more chances than they did, or so it seemed to me.


We did, and it was typical of the luck we had that that ball bounced straight into his breadbasket and stuck, and basically we gave them the try. It wasn't as if they created the position or there was bad defence. Just not the greatest kick going disastrously wrong - on attack, in a decent position.


What did you want them to do, though? It was a very good short kickoff and we did the hard work, getting to the ball and patting it back. Sadly, our rotten luck continued, it just bounced straight up for a KR player so we donated them yet another try. But it was good play, a good kickoff, a good chase, a good pat back, and just rotten bloody luck with where the ball went and how it bounced. Always a risk of course if you go for the short kickoff.


I disagree. I thought we were easily the better team. Again I don't know the stats but we made far, far less errors than KR did, it was one of our better games in terms of respecting possession. And I think they made a lot of mistakes due to us putting pressure and forcing errors.


Thankfully not, we are still 7th, after all that.


I'm very disappointed with the result but thought we ere as I said the better side and on balance deserved to have won. I think that the penalty count, and not getting the run of the ball, was what undid us. I also think that having such a small squad is playing an inevitable part. But with a little bit of luck, we would have beaten many teams today.

That view you are referring to will be the last time you have to put up with it, as the new stand opposite you is all yours next season. There were a few of your fans stood in the well, so I assume you did have a choice where to stand. A bit of a harsh statement though when you consider the view we get at Odsal from behind the posts.

In fairness it must be tricky getting a view anywhere with those other 1342345 travelling fans around.

At Odsal you have the elevation so you can see, at Craven Park, not so. The view is shocking. But I am glad that next year it will be better. It's looking good the new stand by the way.

Are you going to do anything with the other end then?

I think the count was 10 3 in KRs favour, but we did not help ourselves. We kept doing the same things over and over. To give away a penalty when we had then pinned on their own 10 is just daft and then to do it again on the sixth at the other end, crazy. It lead to a try, as it often does.



You make your own luck though sometimes, and with more thought, better skill, better positioning, etc, these things would not happen. Kicking into Dobson's arms was the killer for me, we could have and should have scored then, but that was game over.

Sounds like we missed Sammut and Bateman when they went off injured but lost really because we were too ill disciplined and not clinical enough. It was always going to be a tough, close game.

Saints away is a bit of a graveyard, even with them being below par this season. They beat us fairly easily at Odsal earlier this season even though the winning margin was slight. They have Roby and Lomax back too so it'll be a very big ask to get a result there but not impossible if we show more composure.

There was actually some improvement from last week but given the more limited nature of the opposition we really should have taken the points. Too many pointless penalties given away with at least two on the last tackle, and a number of 'hail Mary' passes going to ground, there really is little excuse for making the game harder than it should have been. The annoying thing is we were still in front after all that, and with a bit of steadyness could have run out winners.

With effectively just one fit player on the bench, we were always on a hiding in the second half to be fair and we, not unexpectedly, ran out of steam. It's easy to say some players need dropping [some certainly need a rest] but other than flooding the team with kids, there are no alternatives.

This.

Oh and if you now look at the stats KR actually made about twice as many errors, or you could view that as we made only half the mistakes they did. (But sadly none of their mistakes bounced straight into the hands of a man in loads of space with a clear run.)


I got the strong impression that as a unit, especially in the second half, if the team was an engine, we were only producing maybe 70% power, and I'm sure that's down to a shortage of 100% fit troops on the pitch. Sammut was apparently already struggling with an ankle injury, then got a deadleg in the first half. Cummins also said "“John Bateman had a really bad dead leg in the first half and Chev Walker had a bang on his knee and couldn’t come back on."

I suppose the key phrase he used to me was this:
“This is no excuse but all our half-backs were struggling beforehand,” he said."

We still should have won the game, and you can look at that two ways, but one thing is sure, Lady Luck ain't looking kindly on us at the moment.

Sounds like we've a battered squad at the moment.

I believe they eventually intend putting something there, though the new stand and the two existing stands will most probably be more than adequate, even allowing for our 243,452,00000 alleged supporters as some would say.