I think some people need to get things in a little more perspective. Ok so we're not pushing for any honours this year but think about were we ever going to? We're in our first season back in SL, we have a very inexperienced squad at this level when you consider how many SL games this squad has played between them, not many. Much of the squad are very young and will (If we can get to keep them) get much, much better as the talent is clear for all to see and at times this season they have excelled. Even our overseas contingent were going to take time to settle, granted one more than the rest
, but they've done Ok.
The season started poorly to put it mildly
but we've improved, yes it may not always appear that way but look at how the score lines changed;
First 7 Losses
Wakefield we lost by 19
Cas we lost by 36
Quins we lost by 30
Saints we lost by 26
Wigan we lost by 26
Hull KR we lost by 36
Catalans we lost by 32
-205
Last 7 losses
Cas by 6
Celtic by 13
Huddersfield by 24
Hull FC by 2
Wigan by 16
Quins by 8
Hull FC by 4
-73
That's a fair improvement as the year has gone on.
At the start of the year those
"in the know" said we'd be lucky to win a couple of matches, we've managed 6 but not only that within those 6 wins have been Leeds (2nd in table) & Huddersfield (3rd in table) Away, Saints (Top of the table), Bradford & Warrington not a bad list of name. Add to that the fact we made the quarters of the cup winning at the KC on the way, I think we've progressed quite well.
Now I grant you there have been many dire performances and I, like everyone else, has had the pants bored off me with some of the tactics we've played this year. And once of twice, for the first time in my life, I've questioned why I bother and again, I, like everyone else, isn’t too happy with our coach and his ideas, but overall I'm not sure what else we expected this season.
I know the stadium is a huge bugbear but that's out of our control.
Castleford were considered a success last year and the won only 7 matches (and a draw) to finish on 15 points, (Hull FC only won 8!) they brought a number of could young lads in and blooded them to their credit and so have we. We currently have 12 points and 6 wins with 7 games to go.
So I suppose overall it depends on your expectations for this season, mine were low and quite frankly I though 5 wins would be the best we could hope for so I can't really complain (but I do
)
I'm not wearing my rose tinted ones, I'm simply a realist and if I'm honest I've seen us much, much worse than this a few times in my life.
Finally to sum things up, we think we've got problems, Bradford spend around ½ million more than us and they are only one point ahead of us with a worse defensive record (I bet you didn't expect to be reading that at the start of the season
), Hull FC are having a shocker with the calibre of players they have. Leigh are third bottom of NL1, Swinton we're beaten at the weekend by Blackpool....at home,, so cheer up a bit you miserable gits!