337 The Dentists Diary

No complaints there really I suppose, but needless to say this fan was pretty disappointed again.

We could have won, but it was down to a fast and incisive play maker and we haven’t got one!! We need someone who could make the difference in attack, we had two almost over the line in the winter, but we failed, we still need a 7 and sadly that’s a glaring fact. We played well, but as per the last few seasons, still pose absolutely no threat in the oppositions 20. We were almost playing safe at times and need a lot more in attack than our current “Give it to Holdsworth” policy. However that said, we gave it our all, the lads went for it, the effort and sweat was there, no-one shirked a thing and everyone gave their all and we can’t complain about that!

In the end we were undone by a forward pass that might not have been given on another occasion, another blatant Huddersfield one that wasn’t given, two misjudgements by youngsters and a missed tackle at marker by Ben Galea and another youngster. These kids have to learn and the only way they will is by playing, so we have to get on with that. It’s those little things that teams play on and that’s what makes the difference isn’t it?

In the end that’s what presented the almost faultless Giants with a win when for long periods of the game we matched them and their massive pack down the middle. The thing is of course

you have to do more than that to beat good teams. Leeds, Wigan or Warrington wouldn’t have done any better than we did in defence or driving the ball forward but they would have had a lot more idea in attack. We just tucked the ball under our arms and crashed forward aimlessly.

That result of course makes next week so important and a game that could well be another of those potential ‘nightmare’ matches takes on massive proportions. Still only 4 points off second, but 5 points from a possible 14 just isn’t good enough is it? We need to start winning.............. and quick!!

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Preparation for playing the League Leaders away doesn’t come any harder than 11 players not training until at least Friday, (when 5 passed fitness tests) and a stomach bug in the camp that saw others missing odd days from training. So that’s the excuses out of the way, but good teams base their success on solid defence and the ability to conjure something up from nothing in attack, we had the first in abundance but the second bit is still missing. Look at Leeds they defend and defend, wait and wait then Sinfield, Burrows or McGuire comes up with a bit of magic and the pressure is off. We saw one try from a great piece of off the cuff play by Holdsworth and McDonnell, but it was just one bit of magic and that was it for the rest of the night. As Chris who contacted me this week said, it was hardly surprising really because over the years, in games when who blinks first loses.... we invariably lose.

An almost faultless Huddersfield completed at 97% and just made a couple of mistakes in the game, while another interesting and very important statistic was the fact that after a season that started with us giving cheap ball away with stupid penalties, we didn’t concede one until the 67th minute. Again that’s good stuff from us, and although it’s wasn’t going to win us it, it probably kept us in the match! So SOME good things are happening.

However once again we clocked off with ten minutes to go and the rest is the usual story, as in any ‘mistake free’ game, it’s the little slips that cost you. When you look at the Huddersfield pack pound for pound, we did so well to match them as we did. There were some massive performances in there and the only glaring mistakes we made were by youngsters like Green and Crooks who’ll learn and the only way they’ll do that is to play. They will be better for the experience even if our league position isn’t! Of course it’s the fact that there is so little invention and attacking flair in our play that emphasises these slip ups so much.

One plus for me was having seen the selection for the game and the quality players sat on the sidelines, we certainly have a lot more strength in depth than we have had for ages, which has to be good. No more do we fall on our backsides when the youngsters come in and at least we compete! On another point although Danny Houghton was a machine, completing 67 tackles, I really felt that we missed Aaron Heramaia, because his light on his feet style would have been really useful in that last quarter as both packs tired.

I thought we made good yards with the ball as we drove out of our half but their excellent kicking game made us start way back near our line, while on the other hand at the end of our sets our kicking was great at times and flat at others. Once in their half, well we’ve seen it all before, our attacking line this year is so flat at times. Time and again we see a slow play the ball, players over running the play or having to slow down to get the ball and therefore getting battered in the collision.

I’m really concerned about Holdsworth, he looked out of sorts again, hung back in the line so as to slow our distribution down further and threw up in the tunnel at the end. It could have been that stomach bug, but he doesn’t look right to me! So once again the effort was there but not the execution!

In tight games you need a bit of invention or at least you need to offload the ball to ‘suck’ tacklers in and then stretch the line, but on Saturday only Whiting looked capable of the off load. Plus, with no real creation in the middle you have to play the game around any’ strengths’ you have on the fringes and at present our only one of those is Westerman, yet nobody went with him in support. I was disappointed when the referee (who was probably right) disallowed the Briscoe try, but missed completely a blatant forward pass in the build up to Wardle’s try, that came at a critical time and for me tipped the balance. If you’re incapable of creating much, on such things games are settled. “The alarm bells are ringing” was the message from some fans as they filed away from the game and you could, I guess, see their point. I’m disappointed and although the spirit,

defence, depth of squad and endeavour are better than we have seen for some time the lack of creativity and inability to hold our nerve and win the close games is just the same and we’ll get nowhere until that improves. We need another play maker with Holdsworth and for me, if not actually sounding forth, those alarm bells are I think starting to tinkle a bit. I say that because in the end, although a valiant effort against a very good team, it’s another defeat another blank in the points for column and another 2 points gone begging. We’ve got to start picking some up soon and if we don’t win at least two of our next three games, I dread to think what our owner’s reaction will be!

But hey, we had a hell of a go and we can’t complain about that, none the less looking at the league table we desperately need some points and quick, starting next week. Of course, there is little doubt that which ‘Hull FC’ will turn up in London is the point we’ll all be pondering in the next few days.

Away from the game itself that attendance was pretty abysmal wasn’t it? How a team that is top of the League, who has just beaten Leeds comprehensively at Headingley and who offer all sorts of reduced ticket options for their fans, can end up with less than 5000 home supporters at a game is a disgrace, the Giants play and achievements thus far deserves so much more! The reality and tragedy is, had we had the same start and played the same quality of rugby, we would be looking at 13,000 plus at the KC. Well done to all those who made the journey over from Hull and created a good atmosphere in the away end where despite some overzealous stewarding, everyone had a good time!

Performance wise, well Danny Houghton really put in a Captains knock. The Huddersfield forwards targeted him from the off to try and take the wind out of his sails, but they failed and his 67 or so tackles was just amazing. Man of the Match for me! Another important plus was the performance of Joe Arundel, he was nowhere near our best player and perhaps didn’t do anything spectacular, but I think he’s growing into the centre position and starting to look good and safe. Crooks too did well and took his try well, but he also dropped a couple of clangers too, while Lineham again did really well and should keep his place as starting winger, for me it’s his shirt to lose now.

McDonnell is good there is little doubt of that, and will be really potent if we can get him away a time or two (bit like our wingers really). He looks really good coming through the middle and usually beats the first tackler running the ball back, but too often our timing of the final ball lets him down. Horney like a few others started ponderously I thought, but got stronger as the game went on whilst as I say I worry about Holdsworth health myself. There is little doubt he makes everything tick but can’t do it all himself and we are missing a real 7. I know we can’t do anything about it but it’s just so obvious!

In the Forwards Westerman continues to improve, despite losing a crucial ball when we were in the attack in the second half and he must despair at the lack of support he gets at times. Lynch seemed quiet but played injured having put his hand up after a fitness test on Friday. Galea did ok at first but for some

reason just isn’t hacking it for me, while Whiting, brought on again from the bench, needs to start, he was the only one trying to vary things by smuggle the ball out of the tackle. Ogre did OK and Pitts worked hard without being spectacular, Bowden was about the same and Watts had another real good hit up! So sat here in the cold light of Sunday morning it was good, but once again ‘no cigar’ and quite frankly I’m a bit worried about how this season is panning out, we just can’t hack it when its close or we need some magic to break the deadlock in the opposition’s half.

Looking back at the week past and it was only last Tuesday, as I sat down to plan out the latest edition of this drivel, that I thought I had better start thinking about putting into writing my concerns about getting Tom Lineham signed up before the May watershed arrives and we have a free for all amongst the other Clubs to get his signature. It was a nagging thought that I’ve had in the back of my mind since he scored against Widnes, but my growing concern followed a telephone conversation I received from an ex player. He is certainly extremely well connected and told me that Saints and Huddersfield had already been ‘sniffing’ around our young winger. I need not have worried however because true to his word Pearson has done that was needed to secure the services of another classy young player and on a good and safe long contract too.

There is little doubt reading between the lines from his interviews last week that Tom was mighty impressed with our owners ambitions and they had played a part in the decision making process the youngster had been through before signing. Pearson may not always get it right, and sometimes he

makes rash promises (as with half backs last year) that he can’t keep, but he said from day one that it was all about developing young talent and keeping it at Hull FC, and so far he has been as good as his word. You all know what I feel about Tom as a prospect, and my excitement is I guess based on the fact that I have always admired big strong fast wingers, because they bring a bit of excitement back to the game. Having said that, I also have every confidence that Tom will make the grade and could even be a future international one day. That’s a rash statement at this early stage I know, but I base it not so much on his potential but on what every player I speak to says about him.

Lineham already has a deal of raw ability and great potential but it is his application and dedication that seems to impress most. Never late for work, he’s always still out on the training field long after many have left and he just wants to improve and learn. We should also remember when Peter Gentle came to the Club Lineham was an also ran, one of ‘Agars Babe’s’ (remember them we had so many who promised a lot but were never given the opportunity to train with the first team or indeed a chance to shine) and you could, back then, see him dropping off the end of the supply line, come the end of the 2011 season. Gentle gave Tom his head, let him develop and most of all gave him a full time contract and therefore his chance. He has grabbed it with both hands and I see a big future for him; Good luck Tom, well done Pearson and Gentle, it looks like a great piece of business to me.

It was good, after his new contract had been announced, to look back to earlier in the week when Tom was extolling the

benefits of playing in the first team this season and his partnership last weekend with Joe Arundel. He said that they were both struggling with Peter Gentles defensive formation the previous week but that our Coach had changed it around a bit for the Castleford game and both the youngsters felt a lot more confident with the new set up. That side looks frail at times, but its improving and perhaps it’s the only way Arundel and Lineham will learn!

So here’s a question for the media; when is it really apparent that you’re short of news? Could it be when you write a story about a situation that hasn’t changed one bit since the last time you wrote about it? Well, it was interesting (or was it?) to read this week that there is still no news as to what Tom Briscoe intends to do when his current contract comes to an end at the close of this season. The Mail reported on the fact that there was no news in January, on the 3rd February the headline read “Hull FC's Tom Briscoe heading to Cronulla Sharks for 2014 NRL campaign”, there was a report of no further news three weeks ago and now again....no news!!! It is however still of interest to me, primarily because although the Club agreed that he could take his time and appear to be happy to wait, a self imposed deadline of the start of this campaign was set by the player and his agent; yet 6 weeks in and there’s still no news from them either.

For me the nub of the issue is that he must still be looking for the best deal and no doubt the whole situation hasn’t been helped by the NRL being in disarray because of the doping scandal that is currently blighting their completion. For me though it all feels like a case of not whether he will go to

Australia, but more of WHERE he will end up playing in the NRL. I still can’t see him staying to be honest, can you?

The fact that Tom Lineham has been given such a long contract and that Crookes has been signed on a two year deal seems to point to the fact that the Club expect Briscoe to be off at the end of the season. The delay, with Hull’s deal being on the table since January, must mean that he is wheeling and dealing in other spheres probably at the other side of the world. He knows what he’ll get from us because Pearson said it was a ‘fabulous’ offer and we wouldn’t be going any higher. Leeds are said to be interested too, but that’s just down to rumours, his brothers untimely move there and wishful thinking on their fans part I think! Whatever the outcome, I have to say that come September I think Briscoe will be off and we may well be very pleased that we have Tom Lineham signed up on a long contract.

The fallout from that monumental scrap in the second half of the Castleford game rumbled on last week as the disciplinary panel called Danny Tickle and Mark O’Meley in for their part in what was certainly as much of a highlight in that second half as any of the tries. An early plea from Ticks got him one game which won’t do him too much harm coming as it does three games after his return from injury, he wouldn’t have won us the Giants game and he has had the chance to catch his breath and push on again next week in London. He definitely deserved a ban because he was clearly seen to be punching and although it was only an act of retaliation, he certainly seemed to land a couple. So a good plea and one game was fair enough.

However I thought that O’Meley was badly done to at the time he was yellow carded, and on reviewing the video it’s hard to see why he was cited at all. The fact that Rangi Chase got away with a ‘No Charge’ - "Appears to make accidental head contact with opponent in attempting to free himself from hold", baffled me somewhat too, because that’s not how I saw that incident either. I think Chase was perhaps lucky to get away with it. He head butted Lineham who retaliated in a fashion, whilst trying really hard to hold Rangi off. As it happened it didn’t matter but what if it has been a close game and we had lost in the last minute. Then of course the sending off of ‘Ogre’ for what appeared both during and after the game to be nothing but an effort at peace making, would have taken on a whole new prospective. I’m not one for putting stuff on report but in cases like that one, where the referee has no idea and the linesman has obviously lost it too, putting the whole thing on report and getting on with it, would for me be the best option.

As for that issue with Ogre, well on reviewing the tape it’s certainly an indicator as to how he has changed when he is the one trying to sort out the melee and keep the players apart rather than the one starting it; he must be mellowing in his old age. Of course everyone piled in and the linesman who was consulted long and hard by Ganson on the night, saw Mark in the middle of things and singled him out for a card, it was a case of ‘it had to be him’ because quite frankly the officials obviously had no idea! The incident only went to prove, I think, that as with most refereeing these days, it’s all a bit of a lottery, and as my mate Ian always says it would be a good idea to supply every referee with a magic eight ball which they could

shake each time they blow their whistle to decided exactly what they have blown it for and what sort of restart to give.

But what about the occasional good scrap? For me, old hand that I am, I think all this modern day overreaction to the odd fracas is a shame, because although it was never ever meant to be part of the game, it has been just that, as long as I can remember, and there is without doubt a certain amount of entertainment value contained in watching a jolly good punch up now and again isn’t there? Remember the ‘Good old Days’ when players would be rolling around on the floor exchanging punches and head butts and Billy Thompson would let ‘em get on with it, then give both players a good finger wagging, put a scrum down head and ball to the defending team and get on with it? Perhaps I’m just a simple soul but it always seemed to work alright for me!

Yeamo’s having some bad luck of late isn’t he? It certainly continued when just as his foot has settled down he sustained a snapped tendon in his thumb, which is threatening to keep him out for at least 6 weeks. Kirk hasn’t been having the best of seasons thus far and I thought against Castleford that despite a distinct lack of service, he was getting a bit of his old aggressive self back, so this latest disaster must be a real blow for the guy.

I spoke to Kirk on Wednesday and he was struggling a bit and all he could talk about was missing the Derby on Good Friday and not being able to partake of his usual ‘crack’ at Rovers. I was also shown a picture of his hand taken last Saturday and it

was so swollen it looked like he had one boxing glove on!! He had an operation on Monday under a local anaesthetic and then he had a cast put on it. I hope he recovers soon and gets back to playing, because although he has had his less effective games this season, he is our best centre, well our most experienced at the very least, and what’s left while he is out is pretty inexperienced for me! Taking of Yeamo and his form this year, I bumped into David Doyle Davidson in that doyen of d’Hote Cuisine establishments; Marks and Spencer’s cafe in Beverley on Friday. We had a good old yarn about our favourite subject and he reminded me that it’s very often the case that players in Testimonial years rarely hit their top form, which I guess looking back over the years is fair comment! Let’s hope that Kirk gets back soon and gets a good run in the first team.

I see that the City Under 21’s had a game at the Stadium the other night and despite all the debate about the pitch and a mention of the fact that rugby is played on it on national TV, quite frankly I don’t have a problem with that. It was a quarter final in a prestigious competition and anyway our own kids played their final at the KC a few years ago so it’s fine. However a bigger issue for me is the Squash Championship (that Mr Allam has sponsored to the tune of over £1m) which is to be played in front of the South Stand in May this year. Of all the dumb ideas, that has to be the one, because that’s the end of the stadium that gets the least sun, being under the shade of the Stand above it. Even in the height of the summer it’s always a sheltered spot and the most worn part of the pitch for that reason.

Why didn’t they think to use the North End which will recover more quickly because in summer it is bathed in sunshine (when there is any) almost throughout the daylight hours. No doubt we will be playing our games in June and July on a pitch with a large yellow patch at one end which is fine until the pre season soccer friendly’s start and we get blamed by the goons from City for bugg*ering up THEIR pitch at that end! Not a lot of thought gone into that one has there? As for the projected attendances of 8000 for the tournament, well I think I’ll wait and see on that one.

Do you think Liam Watts reads this rubbish? We’ll I know a few players do from time to time, no doubt when they are bored. It was interesting to hear Liam’s comments last Friday which were pretty much in line with my comments about the ‘Film Star Fringe’ amongst the ranks of some of our players that I put in here last week. Liam, who it is reported has lost a full stone in weight since the end of the last campaign, put the blame for a rather patchy start to the season down to some of the players believing the pre-season hype and their own publicity. If that’s just co-incidence, well it’s certainly very much in line with my comments about some of our players appearing to not take things as seriously as they perhaps should. My thoughts on that subject in the last Diary certainly hit a few raw nerves with a couple of readers, whilst quite a lot of you seemed to agree with me. In fact one guy at the gym even told me how you could recognise these reprobates! He said that when it comes to the players who fit my description, “You only have to look at their boots”. So he obviously puts it all down fairly and squarely at the doors of the flashy and flamboyant boot brigade, over to you Liam then!!! (Not my idea though Wattsy honest Ha Ha)

Well after two weeks of looking at FC heroes from way back in the mists of time, this week in Codgers Corner for a change, I would like to feature a present day hero who is for me probably the bravest person currently associated with Rugby league in this Country. The fact that wherever his name is mentioned Steve Prescott is hailed as a paragon of bravery, grit and determination, say loads for the bloke, but that’s exactly what he is and it’s something that makes him a role model for us all to aspire to. In September 2006, Prescott was diagnosed with Pseudomyxoma Peritonei, which is a rare form of cancer, I remember well the day that he told us all that the doctors had informed him that he would not see his two children grow up, because at the time he was diagnosed he was given just months to live.

He underwent an Emergency Operation in Basingstoke Hospital and a tumour was removed from his stomach. After surgery Steve was transferred to The Christie Hospital in Manchester for chemotherapy treatment to try to control the remaining disease. It was after he came out of there and started his rehabilitation that his ideas about fundraising took shape. That was around August 2007 after Steve was Guest of Honour at a Wigan Supporters versus St. Helens Supporters Charity game. That match signified the starting point of the Steve Prescott Foundation, with two organisations, The Christie which had cared for him so well and Try Assist, (The Rugby League Benevolent Fund) set to receive the benefits of his own fund-raising activities: the rest as they say is history. Steve continues to battle on, taking what seems like regular scares and set-backs with a smile on his face and do it all with one

thing on his mind, working harder and harder for the Foundation that is so important to him.

All that of course is well known, but perhaps it’s also worth looking back at Steve’s career and what it was that made him such a well loved character and what it is that sees so many people rushing to support his charity, for as well as being a massive hero and role model off the field today, he was in his time, a phenomenal talent on the rugby pitch too.

Back in the 1970’s when the FC was struggling, gates were waning and the Boulevard pitch resembled a pot of brown glue, the visit of St Helens was always a high point of the year. Famed for their fast and mobile backs the Lancashire Club also had a big aggressive forward pack which featured some pretty uncompromising characters. One such player was Steve’s Dad Eric who, under Coach Eric Ashton, had actually progressed to that most formidable of front rows from the wing. I remember well he was a real hard man!! His son Steve started out in his career in the early 1990’s with the Saints Academy, having been signed from local amateur Team, Nutgrove Amateurs. In 1995 he is reported to have said, “The only issue really was as to whether I was big enough to make it to the first team, I'm twelve and a half stone now, but when I started out playing for St Helens in the Academy team I was only ten stone four."

For the first couple of years Steve was renowned for working harder than any of his Saints team-mates on his weight training, he would shovel down his food and weight-gain supplements and at last he was rewarded for all his hard work

and got into the first team. However I remember a time or two watching him on TV and thinking that he had a deceptively frail look to him. In fact I always had a temptation to look away when he stood at the back in that famous red V Saints shirt and waited to greet someone like Wigan’s ‘Inga the Winger’ Tuigamala travelling towards him at full speed.

The start of Steve’s rise into the hearts and minds of all FC fans came about back in 1998 when the then owner David Lloyd tried to make amends with the ‘Faithful’ for selling Tevita Viakona to Bradford for £100,000. It was to be our first season back in Super league and Lloyd saw the need to splash the cash to get the disgruntled fans back on side, and an audacious bid said to be in the region of £350,000, saw Steve plus Simon Booth and Alan Hunte all join us from St Helens. In the disastrous seasons of 1998 and 1999 of the three, it has to be said that Hunte flattered to deceive, Booth did OK but was injury prone and so it was Prescott who became the darling of the fans.

We suffered some heavy defeats in those two campaigns but Steve was always strong at the back, quick to link with the attack and a great all round athlete. He was also a pretty fine goal kicker too and in those two campaigns he landed a total of 65 goals while scoring 15 tries. I remember well his precision and poise in that last and famous game of the 1999 season when we played Sheffield Eagles at the Boulevard to stay up. Steve set up two scores and slotted over the conversions after each try. He did this while remaining solid and strong as our last line of defence as we all cheered on our survival.

At the end of that 1999 season however the Club were in disarray with Lloyd threatening to close us down and the Merger with Gateshead still a couple of months off. It was then that a lot of players left the Club and Steve joined Wakefield for the next campaign. However in 2001 he was back with us after the fans had almost begged the Board and Shane Richardson the then Chief Executive, to bring our hero home. That year he was superb in what was a great season when the Club finished 3rd in Super League. One of my longest lasting memories of Steve was a try he scored that year at the Boulevard against London Bronco’s when he received a pass from Steve Craven surrounded by the visitor’s forwards. He systematically handed one off, then another, before setting off on a run and brushing off three more would be tacklers as he made his way to the line.

In the next three seasons Steve would make 62 appearances, score 34 tries and kick 131 goals. Some of his tries were memorable efforts and featured breakaways from his own line after he had fielded the opposition’s kicks. He would find the gap accelerate through it and scorch to the other end trailing defenders in his wake. However he will always be remembered too for his heroics as our last line of defence, a loan figure stood at the back awaiting the next onslaught from the opposition. His bravery was exemplary and none more so, than against Wigan on Friday 4th April 2003, when at the newly opened KC Stadium he saved the day. In the end we won the game quite comfortably but in the early exchanges Lam put a short grubber kick towards the corner and Wigan’s Carney set off in hot pursuit. All he had to do was kick the ball on and dive

on it over the line to open the scoring for the visitors but as the Irishman lifted his boot to strike the ball haring at full speed across towards the corner, hurtled Prescott. At just the point of impact on Carney’s toe, Prescott crashed in at full stretch, smothered the ball in front of the Wigan winger and somehow held it firm to defuse the situation. That was the sort of bravery we saw so many times and it’s still a particularly strong memory for me.

Of course much worse times were just around the corner for Steve, but he battled on after retiring and was awarded an MBE in the 2010 Honours list and then an honorary degree at the University of Hull in 2011. Both were richly deserved and I can do nothing but admire the man who, despite being in and out of hospital, just goes on raising money and setting a great example. In my opinion, some of those honorary degrees are often ‘bought’ by people or given to folks who perhaps don’t deserve them but Steve’s was a great honour for a truly great person. In 2012 whilst Steve was certainly not in good health,

his Foundation still raised in excess of £100,000. I should have featured Steve in the Diary earlier I know, but I guess, because he ‘just gets on with it’, he is still a bit of a prophet in his own land. However suffice to say he is one of the bravest FC players I have known in my time watching the Club, but what makes him so unique is that he holds that accolade for his exploits both on and off the field. All hail Steve Prescott!

How sad it was this week to read of the death of local funny man and thoroughly nice guy Norman Collier. I met Norman a few times while I was the City Hall Manager and he was always the same lovely guy on and off the stage. I can remember seeing him a time or two sat with the Directors at the Boulevard and one of my most vivid memories of him was when on 24th April 1977 he presented Club Captain Brian Hancock with the Second Division Championship Trophy. There in front of the Best Stand at the Boulevard, he treated us to a bit of ‘faulty mike’ stuff during his speech and a chicken walk as he left the field, and of course we all loved it!. Great memories,

........... -est in –eace Norman Collier!

Well another week passes and we face a really tough task at London simply because it’s one of those games that we FC fans dread and yet one that now we simply have to win. Yes of course, despite their win at Cas. we should succeed, but which FC will turn up? That’s the big question that over the last three or four years has haunted our thoughts as we peruse the fixture list when it comes out. Widnes, Salford and London, are all, for FC fans, ‘the doomsday scenario’s’ but never has a good performance been needed as it is this week. To go into Easter

with just 5 points from 16 is almost unthinkable, yet I bet they fancy their chances and our muddled and flat attack on Saturday will certainly not have had the Londoners quaking in their boots, will it? As Chris Walker said in a note to me this week that made a lot of sense, it’s a sobering exercise looking through the rest of the season and assessing the points to be had. He had us finishing with just 19, which when you look closely at his reasoning, at present makes a lot of scary sense.

Thanks to him, Bill, Brian, Frankie and all those who got in touch this week your responses to my rants last week were interesting to say the least, and thanks to all of you for reading the Diary on another disappointing Monday Morning for this particular fan. I honestly wonder what the rest of the season holds don’t you! Still as I am happy to so often say at these times, at least Rovers didn’t let us down, see you all in London and...

Keep Believing, (if you can)

Faithfully Yours

Wilf

And Finally should we need any reminder that things could be a lot worse, my pal Steph sent me this on Thursday!