It's refreshing to read such a great post on here. Its a cracker and such a tonic to read a positive post that for me shows how Hull FC has changed in just a few short months. Regards the crowds, they will return slowly and the win last night will make people want to go to the KC. It will take time but the faithful will return and now the Wendy ball has finished hopefully people who cannot afford both will start going to watch Hull over the summer.

Very solid start to the season.

Love what Peter Gentle is doing. Similar to what Brian Smith did with team, no stars and he's improving everyone's game. I love Gentle's confidence in the squad, if someone is injured, he just put's the next player in line (and that position) in the team, no fudging the team around like what Agar used to do.

We have so much go forward now, we look like we always have a chance of scoring a try from any where on the park. The chase is better, the kicking game has improved. We also have another gear that can kick on in the final quarter.

Confident for the rest of the season.

Expecting a top six finish, fifth would be great. Top four would be an excellent achievement, considering the squad Peter Gentle has inherited. If we can have better luck with injuries in the second half of the season, we could become a tricky proposition in the play offs and may do well.

Happy Days!!!

P.S Think we'll be even better next season when Gentle gets his own signings into the squad.

Good summary. We still have a lot to do but are certainly going in the right direction and importantly have the right people steering the club now.

Shocking post from the OP. Cannot believe that I wasted part of my life reading it

This is very much a transitional season.

I had a few goals I wanted to see us reach. Losing in the Cup and thus failing to beat a SL club in that competition for a fourth year in a row was one failure. Defeating Leeds was one of the targets met.

We can realistically aim for 5th this season and that should give us a great chance of a first play off win for five years. A win over Saints would mean a much improved record over the big four (my definition being Saints, Leeds, Wigan and Warrington). Should we take at least a point at Headingley, The DW or The HJ then we'll have a record of 50% or more over that group. Far better than in recent years.

Anything would have been better than the $hite Agar served up over the last 4yrs.

Is it my imagination or has marketing slipped at the Club?

How much marketing is done regarding up and coming games?

After beating Leeds for the first time in years, with London up next then rovers at MM weekend, two more positive results from this should be a marketeers dream. I'd hope for a large gate against St Helens on the back of this. On a Sunday of a bank holiday weekend against a top team.

yea hopefully we can get back some of the supporters, what crowd should we be looking at?

Not sure about this. I get regular promotional emails from the club, but more relevant I guess is communication to lapsed passholders and those disengaged during Agar's tenure or who simply can't afford it. You're right about the Saints game - should be setting our stall out for a good crowd. Important to get a derby win as part of the build up though.

Hence my point earlier in the thread about trying discount periods for buying in advance. If tickets were on sale now for Saints for say £15 for the South and £20 for the East and West at least some fans would take up the offer, in 3 weeks time we potentially could have lost to either London, Rovers or both and that would put some pay on the day fans off.

I'm surprised SKY aren't televising this game, Leeds-Wigan on the same weekend is an understandable TV choice, but Bradford-Castleford?

The down side of emails is that it is highly likely that those who have left email addresses with the club are more likely to be the season ticket holders and regular attenders.

Its the floating few thousand who need to be attracted back.

To be honest, I dont buy the Agar factor in this. Agar is gone, we have a new coach and a raft of new players playing a better quality product. If anything its affordability, timings or laziness which is the reason.

I think the experiement of going back to Sundays and the pricing policy has had an adverse effect. I'd like to see a mix of Sunday and Friday games. For example play against Yorkshire opposition on Friday nights and anyone else after than Sunday afternoons / bank holidays. This should not impact from a timing point of view for travelling fans.

North stand pricing needs to be addressed and perhaps a loyalty card system for paying on the day home fans. Something on the lines of having a card stamped each time they pay on the day and the fifth game is a tenner, or something on those lines.

Why use a Mrs B monologue when a couple of words off Baldy will do

I don't think the low crowds are due to the economy. Saints crowds are phenomenally up and I would imagine the financial restraints are similar over in Scouseland. Other large SL clubs don't seem to be experiencing the drop-off in gates we have.

Money's tight, but people have a finite amount of recreational money. I think it's more down to the fact that the disillusioned leavers are spending it elsewhere and will have to be persuaded to give up their new persuits. t think the Sunday switch hasn't helped families, and better marketing will help. UllFc's excellent idea of buying tickets cheaper a week in advance has definite mileage.

But I think the only way we'll see crowds increase is in time, after consistency on the pitch and position in the table. A real shame about our CC exit - that could have hurried things. I only hope Pearson's timescales are realistic enough from a business perspective to keep it worth his while for crowds to remain at this level until at least next season.

I've been thinking the same. i guess that rule was the man behind the improvement in marketing and clarke isn't a marketeer. Would pay the club to bring someone in on 30 grand to do it properly

I'm not surprised Saints crowds are up, they were playing in Widnes last year!

If you look at crowd patterns across sport increases (and decreases) in attendance lag behind real time performance on the field so, providing that Hull maintain their improvement this year, you probably won't get any noticeable increases until next year. Hull's attendance held up better than could be probably be expected over the previous 3 years given the team's results so I'm not expecting an instantaneous surge in support now - though it would be good if it happened.