353 The Dentist Diary

“We can take a lot from that”, said Peter Gentle, but sadly with just 6 games to go and us slipping down the table faster than a silk table cloth, the only thing we needed to take from that game were the two points and although once again it was all very close, ii was also again, not quite close enough!

You can’t fault the response to Monday's pretty shambolic showing in terms of effort, this was a gutsy in your face performance, but the same old problems keep cropping up again and again and our attack is, on occasions, absolutely clueless. To our credit we had several repeat sets on the Huddersfield line, but we appeared to have absolutely no idea of how to get over it. We saw a few good plays come to nought and so went back into our shells and, under their sticks, reverted to that time honoured 'short-drop off pass inside' move that we resort to week in week out.

In fairness I have to say that I felt we took the Giants a lot closer than I expected we would. We matching them for effort and even on occasions for passion, but our attack was one dimensional at times and with blind alley plays and ‘turn it back inside’ rugby to the fore the out-come was, in the end, hardly surprising.

Predictably, I guess we move on, steeped in the knowledge that our season hinges on next week’s game which will be fought out in the 40 degree cauldron that is the Stade Gilbert

Brutus. Around 500 FC fans are amazingly expected to make the trip from Hull and I just hope against hope that they have something to cheer, because as I say, for this fan, the rest of the 2013 campaign is resting on this weekend’s result. On the plus side it’s about small margins, (in our case 4, 1 and 6 points in the last three games), because a team we plastered last season in the play-offs has turned it around and are now second and showing us the way, so it can be done and perhaps we have to have more patience. That’s a discussion for future weeks, but for now it’s..... Onwards to France!!!!!

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Weather wise it was a superb afternoon and when you consider the amount of Barbecuing, sunbathing and tennis playing that was going on it was a good turnout, but just as surely as the sun crept up the steps of the East Stand, as the afternoon wore on the game crept onwards to what was I guess an expected outcome. Like the last two games it was close (and perhaps lost again because we can’t drop goals), our effort was exemplary, our passion back, our team spirit almost over the top at times, but our execution patchy at best. We work hard to attain field position but simply can’t seem to manufacture enough scoring opportunities to make it pay. What too has happened to the off load in the tackle? Whiting managed two but otherwise players like Watts who arrived with this skill as the prime asset of their attacking game, seem to have lost the ability to produce it. A very young Leeds team, decidedly under the cosh, showed us the way and stayed in the game on Friday night at Warrington by using the off load to perpetuate flamboyant and unpredictable rugby.

They say you need a bit of luck but we didn’t have much of that rare commodity yesterday at all. We followed a charged down drop goal attempt by ‘scoring’, only to have it disallowed by the linesman for off side, then the Giants go to the other end, we charge down a drop goal, then another and they score off the crumbs, ironic really, but none the less ‘so Hull FC’. The referee was poor, but when you’re not getting the 50/50’s, good teams make their luck, we tried hard, but we’re still some way off being a top outfit. If Wakey win tonight we’ll be just one point off dropping out of the 8, which quite frankly at this point in the season, with our ambitions, has to be pretty unacceptable.

For me the referee was infuriatingly poor at times and I thought we were unlucky to be at the receiving end of some strange decisions. How does a touch judge miss such a blatant knock as that one in the second half and then there was also an incident where Bentham waived the tackle count clean when there wasn’t an FC player within 15 yards. As always I just highlight here what sticks in my mind, but there were no excuses when firstly McDonnell tried to pull a stationary ball back over the dead ball line and gave away a drop out and when Tickle kicked out on the full straight from the kick off. That’s the type of stuff that kills you....not just on steaming hot days, but all the time ....and it did yesterday. You see I can’t help it; I remember those sorts of indiscretions, because they are, for me, the stand out game changing moments. Overall the performance was good but if I’m honest I expected it, because as I said last week we don’t have a lot of issues raising our game against the ‘Big’ teams, it’s the others like Wakey and Cas. that cause the problems!

Apparently the Huddersfield Press conference after the game was an interesting one with Paul Anderson in a foul mood. He walked in, accused the officials of being “Muppets” criticised Ellis for that ‘shoulder charge’ and then stormed out again. However after the game both Ellis and Peter Gentle were comfortable about the hit on Robinson, but I suppose we’ll have to see if anything comes of it! In fact Gentle felt there was a lot to build on from our performance, but with just 6 league games left to play that’s scant consolation for us lot sat there frying with frustration in 28 degrees on the terraces.

I thought that Miller was a lot better this week and started to take charge of things in the second half. Did anyone else notice how his defence has improved, probably because he switches to the left now to tackle, but plays down the right in attack. Poor bugger, he’s having a real baptism of fire isn’t he; we haven’t won yet since he arrived! I really worry about McDonnell though because he simply isn’t cutting it for me at present. Arundel isn’t the answer for this fan at centre either, his defence is poor, he ran into touch when he should have turned inside and then when he was tackled close to touch in front of us, he brilliantly stayed in play, only to put his foot ‘out’ as he tried to get up. He’s trying, there’s something there, but it isn’t happening for me at present.

O’Meley was again massive and when he comes on he shows how much we are missing grunt down the middle, his try was a typical props effort off a great short ball from Miller. Yeaman had a much better game before leaving the field looking a bit groggy and after his try against Wakey made him eighth in the all-time leading scorers in Super League history, yesterday’s

game was another milestone, his 300th career appearance as a professional. I have to say too that Ellis, working down Yeamo’s channel probably had his best game for us thus far. Talking of best games for ages, Briscoe certainly had his and showed that a lot of the old fire was back; he might yet be our trump card in France. Danny Houghton is a dynamo and despite his left side passing game being a bit wayward at times, he worked his socks off. Green really worked hard in his first spell but then mysteriously didn’t return while from the minute Whiting came on things started to happen; I’d have him starting every week myself! Finally, Heramaia produced another of his none stop efforts where he strove throughout to get things moving. OK I have my favourites, we all do, but the rest were for me OK and like my lawn at home only good in patches!

So, in the end I guess it’s fair to say that we were certainly much better this week, but what was a top-4 challenge has quickly become a challenge for the top 8 and for me, at this point of the season and in the context of what Pearson is trying to do, that’s a massive concern. The fact that we have players like England winger Tom Briscoe, Exiles half Daniel Holdsworth, ex Internationals Richard Horne and Yeamo, plus Westerman, Ellis and Danny Houghton and yet have now got the third worst attack in Super League, speaks volumes. When you add to that the fact that a team that last year only lost once at home, has now already lost 5 at the KC (with still 3 to play), it could in fact be an indication that we’re going backwards; fortress KC has become a happy hunting ground for the opposition, and for this fan, it’s all pretty frustrating at present.

After a few good wins and then what has followed (our current almost catastrophic decline) it’s inevitable many folks will be disappointed, I know I am and everywhere I go people want to talk about our recent demise. Of course that means that some are now looking for scapegoats and inevitably as always, the Coach is fast moving towards the front of the queue when it comes to recriminations.

Although they are still muted, the mutterings around me yesterday about Peter Gentle were growing and not just from the usual suspects who moan about everything. For what it’s worth, I believe that by enlarge Peter has done a good job, but when you’re in trouble in sport, then the Coach is always the first place the fans look for heads to role.

So after all the stick Richard Agar quite justifiably took, it’s interesting that in our current troubles it’s the players and not the coach who are generally getting it in the neck. Peter’s recruitment has been reasonably good and we have to accept there would always be a few iffy appointments when you have to bring in so many players in such a short time, however he’s certainly done well in giving young players a chance. This last few games apart I feel that in general the philosophy and focus of the Club has been a revelation under Pearson and Gentle and although spluttering at times in attack, our defence has been much improved and in the big games, in general, we have been hard to break down.

However we just don’t seem to be mentally prepared for every game, we’re pumped for the big teams, but with the ‘easier’

looking matches, there’s a problem when it comes to some player getting up for them, we lose, confidence falls and results spiral downwards. Gentle can't make them have the effort or attitude. That is something only the players can do. The fact is you can play all the good rugby you like and defend with the best, but if your head isn’t right week in week out then inconsistency becomes almost the accepted norm. But, how do you change that Culture?

Well we could bring in a tough guy Coach to sort a few out, but generally ‘bullying’ the players is only a short term fix and I think our problems go deeper than that. A tight group of players based in the area is a start, but with a team of professionals, whose homes are spread across Yorkshire, it’s hard to have a self policing policy with regard to what players do and how they behave away from the field of play.

Somehow we have to find a way to develop a new culture to ensure we are mentally ready for every game. If we had been, then we would have beaten Cas and Wakefield and yesterday’s reversal would have been just what it was, a game that could have gone either way, in which defeat against the second team in the League was not too worrying in the bigger scheme of things. Peter’s current philosophy is based on Australian practise, where the players are given responsibility for their own behaviour as both individuals and as members of a group and I believe he is making progress. In the end this hands off method of self motivation which places the responsibility back onto the individual is the best way of managing and of developing a mental toughness and corporate responsibility, but apparently in the short term, it’s all too much for some. I think with many of

our players it’s starting to work, but it takes longer to evolve when some players are based away from the bulk of the staff, because quite simply you don’t know how they are behaving when they’re not in camp. Some will be fine, others tend to struggle and there’s always someone who sees them out on the razz and blabs on message boards etc. For me there is little doubt that PG’s management style is the right one in the long run, but to get where he wants to be and where we want our team to be may mean that there will be casualties along the way. Gentles on the right track long term, whether we and the owner have the patience to see it through of course is completely another matter.

So onto another interesting issue and you know there is always a lot of criticism about when any of us Hull FC types state that we are a big club particularly when you have lost four on the trot! Yet with the best stadium in the League, three youth development centres of excellence, some of the best training facilities in the game, an average five figure gate year in year out, the second best retail operation in the League, and a ‘Grade A’ licence, we ARE a big operation. The problem is some people cannot differentiate between a big Club and a successful one. You don’t have to be successful on the field to be ‘Big’, although I accept it helps. Smaller Clubs can still be successful playing wise, although usually their infrastructure dictates that success is only short term. However if an indicator is needed of a ‘small’ Club it’s probably the instances when they are successful on the field, but then ‘spoil themselves’ by, as fans (and even in some cases Coaches and Chairman), coming out publically to have a poke at us bigger and better run organisations. It’s a human frailty you come across all the time in life as well as in sport and basically it’s just jealousy and it’s

certainly something we are used to at the West side of the City isn’t it?

I raise this because it’s been a week when the message Boards have been full of Rovers, Castleford and Wakefield supporters giving us advice on how to succeed, which in itself, is bad enough. Then following The Rovers Chairman’s rant about us signing Micky Paea, up pops Richard Agar to have a ‘poke’ at Peter Gentle and his criticism of Justin Poore’s tackle on Shannon McDonnell last Monday. A tackle for which the Wakefield prop only got a warning. Gentle was I think quite rightly fuming about the tackle, which saw our full back lifted in the air and then visibly thrown to the ground on his neck. Further viewing of the incident indicated that Poore in fact placed both hands on McDonnell as he flew ‘groundwards’ and thrust him into the turf. All the pundits afterwards including Paul Cooke, James Smailes and a couple of writers in the ‘nationals’ said it was a bad tackle and that Poore should have been sent off there and then. However Agar maintained that the two players concerned actually attempted to ease Shannon to the ground, so he didn’t get injured.

What a load of bollocks! Get real Mr Agar the team you coach won, OK? You got one over the Club that sacked you OK? So take that graciously, keep your gob shut and move on! It’s that small Club mentality again and isn’t it a fact that cheap shoes squeak loudest eh? It was shocking tackle and one, as Paul Cooke said on Radio Humberside, that would have got an automatic 6 match ban in Australia. For a forward to lift a player above the horizontal is a serious matter, but for him then to slam him down ‘neck first’ is for me a sending off offence. Good

forwards know all the tricks and make their presence felt through tough in your face driving play and hard and fair tackling. However I’m afraid in my opinion players who gain a reputation through thuggish behaviour, like Justin Poore and indeed Ryan Bailey are in the end, just that....thugs!

How’s that for a body slam eh? Big Daddy would have been proud of it and it’s hard from this angle to see how the player’s

neck and spine was not in danger. Note too Washy in the background just checking there was no loose change coming from McDonnell’s pockets.

The ongoing saga of the future structure of the game, continued unabated this week and I think I have discovered the current ‘state of the game’ as far as the Super League Clubs are concerned. I’m told from impeccable sources that it looks as if the option on the table for two divisions of 12, 23 games and a split to 3 divisions of 8 at that point will succeed. Not everyone is on board as yet however because our Club and St. Helens wanted two Divisions of 12 with traditional relegation and promotion and a parachute payment over 3 years for the relegated team, while Rovers want the same, but with two divisions of 10!!! However, those at the top of all three dissenting Super League Clubs agree that as Leeds and Mr Hetherington (who seems to hold sway at Red Hall) and other top teams are going for this latest idea, it’s that one which will succeed.

Quite frankly I was wary about change but I have to say the more I think about it the more I like it, because at least it guarantees that there is a deal of ‘jeopardy’ in all games played throughout the year and no-one is safe or indeed out of one battle or another, be it relegation, promotion or the quest for the Super League Trophy. I explained the system proposed last week in some detail and I know the Club intend to offer the fans a chance to hear about it from them in the near future.

The news from across the river this week made me smile. As the Dobbins fans walked around the City centre wearing their shirts with pride and dining out on their elevated position over us in the league, there was again a real contradiction from the top of their organisation which again smacked of hypocrisy (nothing new there I hear you say, and you’re probably right). I’ve never been a big fan of Ben Cockaigne have you? Having seen him play and read a few of his selected tweets over the months, he ranks for me somewhere between a constant thorn in our side and a foul mouthed yob. So last week when it was announced in the Hull Daily Mail that they were trying to lure ‘Charlie’ back to Caravan Park, I took more than a passing interest. Next day Radio Humberside triumphantly announced (no doubt from Mr Lloyd’s sources), that as far as the Rovers Board were concerned it was, “News to them”. Now you’ll remember that the right honourable Neil Hudgell was telling us all a couple of weeks ago about being open and honest telling the truth and not hiding things (Micky Paea), away from the fans.

So, ‘imagine my surprise’ next day when Wakefield came out and openly said that Rovers had in fact approached them, twice, through Assistant Coach Chris Chester and then at Board level. In the words of ‘Honest’ Agar “They [Hull KR] offered us a player who is obviously overpaid in their camp and who is surplus to requirements, (could that be Con Mika?), which we turned down as a flat no, it wasn’t a serious offer in my opinion. I believe they’ve spoke at board level and again come in with some sort of offer but we didn’t judge it to be a serious one..... although it might be serious on their part” The Wakey Coach went on to say, “I’ve told Ben the truth (there’s a novelty in these sorts of things) and Benny’s fine, he’s certainly

not banging the door down to go back to Hull KR. He’s happy, his form’s been good and he’s had a special relationship with both sets of fans which is good for him.” Double standards; it makes you smile doesn’t it?

While we are on this sort of stuff what was all that Radio Humberside Paul Duffen stuff about last week? Four years after Duffen was excluded from Hull City he’s back with a one hour interview where he implied that it was all lies and he is actually somewhere between Honest Abe and Mother Teresa! It certainly all came out of the blue, although now he’s working behind the scenes at City again and it looks like he’s trying to come over all squeaky clean and ‘Mr good guy’ because when he’s announced as being back at the football club, the Tigers fans will give him a big ‘Hail Fella’ and embrace him with open arms. Of course they won’t and neither would we if it was our Club that had been (allegedly) shafted. However as well as implicating Russell Bartlett in it all, (and this is why I mention it) he also tried to rope Adam Pearson in too.

Now why did Humberside drag all that up again after 4 years and what was the point? Reading City message boards it seems few fans have been swayed from their initial assumptions about Mr Duffen anyway. It’s old news for me and I just wonder who put Duffen up to it in the first place? Who would gain from dissing Adam Pearson while he was at City? I’ve really no idea...... have you?

Talking of the media it was great to read a long article in the Hull Daily Mail about my old work mate and ex FC ball boy

Mark Charlton who has helped me out a time or two with the Diary in the past. Mark was a fully qualified referee in the Championship when he was diagnosed with coeliac disease – a condition in which gluten found in wheat barley causes the immune system in the gut to attack the digestive system, damaging it to a point where it affects the ability to absorb food at all. He had to stop officiating in the middle, but was in 2009 given the chance to become a match commissioner and he jumped at it.

A couple of years ago as you will remember, he allowed me to shadow him in a game between Doncaster and Whitehaven and it’s certainly an eye opener when you see just what a MC has to do. This year Mark stepped forward to be one of the 1,000 people to take on volunteer roles at the Rugby League World Cup. Taking a month off work to look after Papua New Guinea as they stay in the city, he has become one of just 14 team liaison officers and will look after all the needs of the PNG team before, during, between and after their games. He has had to become conversant with their languages and cultures too and will be their point of contact in what is a very important role. So well done Mark; it’s always great to see an FC fan doing his bit for the game.

Whatever happens on the field of play there still seems to be no shortage of good news off it as we read last week of a Hull FC shirt supply contract with ISC that will run for the next 5 years. I know that Lee Jenkinson has been working away behind the scenes for months setting up a deal with the company whose first sortie into the British Market was with Hull FC.

This new arrangement with the club’s current official kit manufacturer is destined to be the longest-running commercial partnership in Super League after we agreed a new five-year deal to the end of 2019. ISC are already in their eighth year as a sponsor and now the Australian firm will continue to play a leading role in developing the plans Pearson has, to expand the business in the coming years. As the biggest kit manufacturer in the sport, ISC have made massive steps forward since first being associated with the Airlie Birds in 2006 and their portfolio now boasts 15 rugby league clubs on both sides of the world, as well as the England national sides. They are now a coveted brand as far as Club rugby is concerned and the deal is a reciprocal arrangement in that ISC will continue their sponsorship of the Club throughout the new contract. It also means that we can plan a long way in advance, order stuff in bulk with long lead in times and keep abreast of the changing trends in sports retail. It’s a massive plus for our Club which behind Leeds runs the second most successful retail operation in the British game.

Watch our Mr Murray here comes Mr Horney; this week Wimbledon next week Catalan????? Rich is seen here getting in a bit of tennis after training on Friday, but he’s still ‘touch and go’ for France.

It was certainly a blast from the past when this week we all read of David Oxley CBE being elected as President of the RFL – 21 years after he retired as Chief Executive of Rugby League’s governing body. Mr Oxley, 76, who lived locally for some time, will hold the honorary position for 12 months, a period he said after the election would be “one of the most exciting in our great history”. David Oxley served as Secretary and latterly Chief Executive of the RFL between 1974 and 1992, when he reached the compulsory retirement age of 55. He left after he had become known affectionately by the ‘Threepenny Standers’ as ‘The Cheshire Cat’ because of the infectious smile which was permanently pasted across his face. I actually lived opposite the Oxley’s when at home with Mum and Dad in Potterill Lane in Sutton and my lasting memory of David is him grinning his way through that disastrous Cup draw live on Breakfast TV on Monday 2nd December 1985, when there was one too many balls in the bag for the quarter final Cup draw. What an embarrassment that was! Still it’s great to see David Oxley back.....still smiling!

So it’s the Quarter Finals this week and I wracked my brains to remember my favorite last eight game of the past. Boy have there been some crackers, but none that grips this fan as much as one in 1980 that saw us eventually go through into a semi final against Widnes at Station Road and then onto the game we don’t mention against that lot at Wembley.

You’ll no doubt remember that a few months back I revisited that great semi final victory at Station Road, but before that we were draw away at our bogey team Bradford Northern in the quarter finals. On 9th March we all set off on the Half Way pub coach for a few pre match pints in the Feathers in Bingley and a game that very few of us thought we had any chance of winning at all. In the previous 4 years Bradford had dominated encounters between the two clubs, winning seven and drawing one of the previous 8 meetings. In addition to that the odds were really stacked against us when you consider that we had not reached the last 4 in the Challenge Cup since 1961.

That day the M62 was packed with coaches, mini buses and cars all emblazoned with the black and white. That was also the famous day that we passed a Knutzdens Deep Freeze lorry tipping about thirty guys out at the Top House pub at Odsal Top, and I can still see them blinking in the sunshine as the big back freezer doors opened. It’s just a good job the freezer was switched off!

When we got to the ground there were about 11,000 there from Hull with the kick off being delayed by about 10 minutes as a gate of 22,000 was squeezed in. It was a time that homemade banners were all the rage too and a lot of mothers and wives were missing bed sheet that day. That afternoon, as well as the usual, ‘Arthur Buntings Black and White Army’ and ‘Bank on Lloyd’ there was one that appeared at all the rounds of the cup games that year, which simply said, ‘Hissing Sid is Innocent’. This referred to a campaign by Radio One DJ Noel Edmonds to exonerate the villain in a piece of poetry ‘Captain Beaky and his Band’ that had reached number 5 in the music charts in February that year. What it had to do with Hull FC is anyone’s guess, but it was always there and sticks in my mind to this day. However all this carnival atmosphere soon changed and became very tense as the teams took the long walk down those 96 steps to the pitch and by the time they had reached the

grass at the bottom the atmosphere was electric, well a lot more electric than it will be on Saturday in France, I’ll wager.

It was one of those days when there was no question at all that from our first touch of the ball it was obvious that tactically, physically and mentally Arthur Bunting had everything just right. It came out afterwards that the whole team had sat down for lunch together at a little pub on the moors and that seemed to have done the trick. Injured veteran Keith Hepworth had also given a stirring speech in the changing rooms before kick-off and everything was set for a thrilling encounter.

From the start the two sides went toe to toe and few openings appeared. After about ten minutes Graham Bray hared down the field to be felled by an unpunished high tackle from Parker and then as Hull pressed, Ronnie Wileman was tackled, and then trampled on by Grayson and Geoff Clarkeson; Lloyd popped over the kick and we were 2-0 up. Next the mercurial Redfearn who had been the standout half back of the season, split the Hull defence and as he ran towards us only a last ditch ball and all tackle by our full-back Paul Woods stopped him scoring. It was a great effort that had us all covering our faces because Paul was usually panelized on such occasions, but this time Referee Ronnie Campbell waived play on, our line got back and we somehow withheld another two drives for the whitewash, before just as he crossed the line, Van Bellen lost the ball.

Amazingly that was to be the closest Bradford came to scoring, but there was still plenty of excitement to keep us all on our toes. Keith Mumby pulled off what was probably the best tackle of the game as he thwarted a move started by Tindall and Stone, when he scrambled to stop Sammy Lloyd as he crossed the line before driving our second rower back into the field of play. It was that close on a few occasions, but our pack led by

Knocker Norton and Charlie Stone excelled against the fancied and much vaunted Northern 6, and Keith Tindall ran himself to a standstill. Twice Charlie Birdsall crashed into Clarkeson to stop him in his tracks and a big tackle by Charlie and Walters saw Van Bellen’s crumple to the ground in agony and leave the field for good, shaking his head and seeing stars.

Norton and Wood took the sting out of the home teams efforts with some great deep kicks in the last ten minutes, Walters then went on a 70 yard mazy run only to be stopped three yards short by a sandwich tackle from Barrends and Mumby. Then as three massive hits drove us back to their 25 yard line, Clive Pickerill, who had been brilliant all afternoon, stood back and banged over a superb drop goal to make the score 3-0 and that was how it finished. Everyone reading this will remember the next bit, because when Ronnie Campbell blew the whistle the scenes were incredible. It had been a game that had not just drained the players, for we were all worn out too by an encounter that you could not take your eyes off for a second.

All the excitement, pent up emotion and relief came flooding out of us, and we were over the fences and onto the pitch before the police could do a thing. In fact in the end they stood back and waived us by. With about 6000 on the pitch mobbing our heroes we lifted ‘Knocker Norton’ aloft and carried him shoulder high from the pitch. They were astonishing scenes that I and anyone else who was there will never forget.

What an occasion and what a game. That squad in 1980 was a team that I will never forget and it was the harbinger of 5 great years in the history of our Club which were probably the best 5 years ever! We’ve a long way to go before we see talent like that in one place at one time in black and white again, and just half the effort we saw that day from our heroes at Odsal, will

get us a win on Saturday in France, will we get it? The effort or the win?…mmmm!! come 6-00pm on Saturday we’ll see!

Thanks for everyone who has contacted me this week including ‘Mental Eddie’ from Saudi Arabia, Dave Jenson from Walsall, Harry P and Steve Daddy from Hull, Barry Edwards, Steve Cressey and Frank and my weekly pundit Barry Ward. It’s so tough at present, but we have to hang in there and hope, because over the years as fans that’s something we have become good at isn’t it?

It’s onwards now towards a massive weekend because we face a mighty game don’t we? You simply just can’t underestimate it, this match is so important and I wish I could afford to go to France to ‘suffer’ with the FC Army and the lads. It’s pretty expensive this time around and I have so much respect from all you who are making the trip, I know that the Club has sold its complete allocation of 400 tickets so have a safe time and good luck you’re truly special supporters. After no doubt a sleepless night, I’ll be following it on the TV at home and rather like what was said many years ago about the viewers fear of the daleks, I’ll be watching from behind the settee!!! That’s the reality of it all for me, because I really can’t endure watching the FC in any other form than actually being there. As for the game, well we’ll know after 20 minutes whether we have a hope. If we’re still in it then, perhaps we’ll just have a ghost of a chance and we might just pull it off. However in reality we’ll all really know in the first two sets whether we have a prayer or whether, once again, we have left our zeal and our desire back at home.

It’s a massive game for us all, perhaps season defining for the Club and possibly even career defining for one or two of our staff, both on and off the field. I believe, if we win, we’ll get to Wembley and so it’s a crucial encounter, but make no mistake about it, it’s a massive ask! We just have to give this one our

all because anything short of that is simply unacceptable for the long suffering fan. Our players have to strain every sinew, stretch every nerve in their bodies and with every ounce of their passion try and get over the finish line!!!

Anything less than 200% effort from our boys simply won’t do and as I have often said in here, we know they can do it…because they have proved that already this season. It will be tough; it was 37 degrees during London’s game there last Saturday. However as fans we are fed up with them just not turning up and not understanding just how important winning or even competing is to us lot the folks who pay their wages!!!!! They have to be up for this, nothing is more important than getting to a Cup semi final, because that’s where anything can happen and we have to do everything we can to get there. We all know we’ll all be giving them every ounce of our support whatever the outcome, we always do! So get behind the boys cheer them on and give your all, AND then just pray they do the same for you, because there’s nothing more certain that should their passion on the field matches ours off it, we’ll get through. On Saturday we need big rough marauding forwards who force their presence on the game early on and protect our half backs throughout; easy to write about here but hard to produce in France?

See you all behind the settee.

Keep Believing and

COME ON YOU HULLLAARRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Faithfully Yours

Wilf