The transition from a few rounds in to now has been massive. I don't think anyone really saw our huge improvement in defence coming and our game management to see out recent games has been magnificent.
We haven't looked as slick as some early games, or even tried to be. But if recent wins mean sacrificing some of that attacking intent in favour of better control then I'm all for it.

I still think we have to be grounded in our approach and outlook ... but can you imagine the likes of Dixon & Kelly having the chance to play on the back of a bit of go forward if/when we can get the pack fit and playing? Add to that, the weather warming up and ground hardening ... some real running options against tiring opposition. That's without even mentioning the brains dept of Campo and Lunt.

Chris Chester ... knives were out after Wakey game, but has done a great job so far/since then. Same too applies to Willie Poching ... who again, after Wakefield we were thinking .... improve our defence .... hmmm?

I listened to Jon Wells talking about gelling a new team last week and he stated that attack is a lot easier to gel that defence. That he said takes a lot more time on the training ground and a lot more understanding as its harder to drill.

As no expert I always assumed the other way around but it does seem to be coming to fruition with us. I like most despaired after the Wakey debacle, the defence looked like it had gone backwards and even 1st half v cats looked abysmal. Shows what I know, now this might all be a flash in the pan but at last(prob for 2 or 3 seasons) I'm looking forwards to watching us play.

Rovers are currently 3 points better off than from the equivalent fixtures last season.

That will remain the case even if we lose all of the next 3 SL games so from that perspective anything we get will be an improvement.

Very tough run of games but we seem to be competitive every week right now so anything is possible.

In comparison to last year, we are a better team with better players and the overall gap between some of the SL teams has definitely narrowed.
That said, to use a well worn record this year, there is no easy fixture in SL anymore which is a good thing, so we should take nothing for granted.

We had an easy fixture last Thursday/

I did say some of the teams and that ain't one of them.