I see it as a 'coming-of-age' of Salford fans.

Other fans generally left us alone because, let's face it, we just made up the numbers year on year. Most of the Salford posters that went through all these years on RLFans were always pretty rational realists, and I do think most of the regular Salford contributors on here (Old and new) represent a fairly high percentage of sensible posters on RLFans in general.

I think we're going through the fans equivalence of puberty.

The Club is slowly dragging itself into being a competitive side, and now fans of other Clubs take more interest in our comings and goings. For good and bad. As fans, we lack experience of the bombardment of exposure we've generated in 18 months, and we've automatically gone on the defensive. We'll learn from our mistakes, and learn to adapt. For me, it's a positive sign we're going in the right direction.

I was looking forward to seeing your 'hit squad' in action but I guess they where busy playing bingo back at the home

Yeah, good one Gareth...

He's so funny. I really don't know where he gets his material from. He's a genius.

Spot on Butcher and the end game of course is to get to a situation where you get beyond defensive and really start enjoying the rugby as well as the ride and consign your recent past into the filing cabinet marked history along with phrases such as well this time last year and if it wasn't for the Doc we'd be finished....

That's not say you should forget that part of your club as it's character building and will ensure that when success does arrive then it will be all the sweeter

Not that it ever bothered us, but, I quite like the fact that we can sing "we're not W...ky anymore" and I enjoy that positive outlook that we've now got (apart from the recent result against Widnes, my personal nightmare) that it is "always our year" even though it always isn't.

You'll get there IMO and judging by the reaction to your owners latest Radio Yorkshire interview (I didn't hear it), but it seems that he is taking this club building malarkey a little bit more realistically? Things should simmer down

Woosh

Christ can't you see it was complimenting you on being a visiting opposition supporter with a brain, a valid opinion and decent way of expressing it. I was drawing attention to the fact all we seem to attract from other sites on here are people with an IQ lower that a pregnant snakes nipples.

Yes I did see the irony in your reply. You were obviously shocked and surprised to see a post from 'a visiting opposition supporter with a brain' as you put it. As a supporter of RL in general I am genuinely interested in the Salford renaissance story coupled with the fact that there are some ex and current Wigan players in your team whose progress I am interested to follow. It is good that Salford are on the up and now have a new stadium. It is good the game as well as Salford.

Could we persuade you to go to Castleford to do some missionary work?

No thanks. I only go to Castleford when I really have to! Lol

Doing penance?

I read it as a compliment too.

As regards ridiculing dissenting comments, we don't actually get too much dissenting comment. It would be nice if we did because, personally, I don't mind discussions on the sport with fans of other clubs. Unfortunately, what we get is ill-informed clarts from people who seem incapable of doing even the most basic fact checking, and its that that gets ridiculed. We had a few months of it from Cas fans during the Marc Sneyd saga, and it only really tailed off when he showed his love of Cas by joining Hull. Now we just get the occasional visit from 'newgroundb4wakey', but they just bring to mind a scene from Father Ted where Ted is trying to explain to Dougal the difference between things that happen in his head and things that happen outside in the real world.

We also had a steady flow of similarly ill-informed visits from fans of another club (I forget which one) who seemed to have such a chubby for trying to show that everything Marwan does is wrong that they'd already reached the vinegar strokes before they'd had chance to check what they were saying was actually true. Fortunately, they've tailed off too, although it's a little disappointing to note that some contributors to their forum still can't bring themselves to use the man's correct name, and prefer some asinine variation on it. It demeans us all because it makes us all look as childish as they are. It also stifles any real debate about him, because it's indicative of someone who's already made their mind up. A mind is like a parachute: it only really works when it's open. (You can thank Frank Zappa for that one.)

I don't think it's trolling, and I don't think the responses to it are necessarily indicative of a siege mentality. They're just ignorant comments by ill-informed people really. Trolling is what we get off that buffoon from Widnes whose name escapes me. Why people can't just ignore it is utterly baffling.

As for the 'always the victim' conspiracy theory stuff, I just cringe when I see it on here. It would be interesting to know if the people who think that way are also followers of Manchester United and have picked up the Alex Ferguson habit of seeing unfairness everywhere except when they're the beneficiaries of it.

I heard more people than ever before talking about Salford last night in various pubs, unfortunately a couple of the people were saying that's why they don't really go to games as Salford are hot and cold.

More than ever we need to focus on winning all the remaining games and working on a feel good factor too boost season ticket sales, if we take the collective foot of the gas we will suffer with fewer bums on seats next season.

I really do think we are at the crossroads here and we could go either way. If we win, say 3 of our last 4 matches and have a good start to next season, I think we are up and running as genuine top 4 contenders. If we have a poor end to the season and a poor start next year, then we will be our usual sorry selves. As for 'always the victim' theory, I think nothing substantiates that more than O'Louglin's dreadful trip on Rangi on Thursday. That was blatant. That was deliberate. That needed a red card and a long ban. Instead, it resulted in a try for Wigan and game over within 5 minutes. If it had been Hock doing a sliding, feet first tackle, they would have locked him up and thrown away the key. Is it any wonder we have the 'always the victim' theory.

Yes, the O'Loughlin incident was at least a penalty (not sure it was a red card because I'm not sure it was deliberate) and yes, if it had been Gareth Hock the pitchforks would have been out. It only leads to the 'always the victim' mentality if you're prepared to ignore the things that go our way. We played Leeds when they were without their talismanic captain and leader. If there was really a conspiracy against us, he'd have been given sending off sufficient so he could play against us. We played Wigan after they'd had a four day turnaround compared to our six. The examples are there if you're prepared to see them, and that's why I find the conspiracy theory nonsense to be, well, nonsense.

As for the rest of what you say, I agree (although I'm not sure about top 4: we're still a bit light in the front row for me). I think we need to go into next season on the back of a few wins and, despite Thursday's setback, I think it's still within us. I'm not sure top 8 is a possibility now, but it's really only a 'nice to have' rather than an essential.