my worty is that we dont make top 4 and hughes decides enough is enough for him.

High expectations have proved unfounded and are now well dashed.

We have a newly built squad where almost all of the experienced players were recruited in the off-season by a coach who walked out after two competitive matches. Of the four experienced props who were on the books at the start of the season, two have left and both of the others are out injured, one of them having yet to play a match. We have two short-term half backs neither of whom actually belong to the club. Not exactly a recipe for a successful season.

on paper we have a better squad than last year.

I dont agree. Last year we had some good players who are now playing well in SL. (Preparation was the major contributor to failure last year) Our current team doesn't have one SL standard player. I question how many of them are championship level.

Batley came within an ace of winning yesterday and they would have deserved it. As the season develops I expect London to acclimatise and I'm presuming Bulls will improve. Getting into the top four is an important marker although I can't see any Championship club getting promoted. Maybe in the following season strategy and recruitment will be better targeted having had the experience of this season. It's early days and looking at the current SL clubs none of them look to be exceptionally weak . We just wait for the RFL to change the qualification rules again or expand SL.

We came very close to stealing this game in the dying seconds. But we were hardly in it for the majority of the game. Haven showed more passion than we did and clearly wanted it. Only maybe the last 30 did we actually start to play quicker and with more purpose. But throughout we put ourselves under pressure. Penalties gave them good field position and they then used it to good effect. They even had a try chalked off under the sticks.

As examples some of our kicks went straight to hand, in one case Dollapi did all the hard work dropping on a loose ball giving us possession and relieveing the pressure but then decides to pass it which resulted in a knock on, their ball and more pressure.

Some of the players look beat up and Lovegrove must spend most of each week in traction. There is improvement taking place (clutching at those straws again) but it really needs to be instant as the incremental improvementsmean we're slipping behind the front runners.

Pitch was very muddy and we can expect that at most places we play. I don't think we are set up for that type of rugby. We have perhaps looked better on our own drier firmer pitch. Though not sure the drier weather will see much improvement unless attitude changes for away games.

No ing about from Hendo's post match interview and no duel reg players allowed for the CC game either.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps1JXRws06o

No ing about from Hendo's post match interview and no duel reg players allowed for the CC game either.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps1JXRws06o

Reading into his comments a number of players are not good enough.

Yep, we are still improving and theres clearly more work to be done. I just hope we don't leave ourselves too far behind 4th place for the back end of the season, if the gaps' too big, then the bookies view that the full time pro' squads will eventually consolidate at the top may prove untrue, for us at least.

So did Joe.

Jeez, what a quagmire. Match highlights here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZdEpKcOMvE

Jeez, what a quagmire. Match highlights here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZdEpKcOMvE