Firstly, have you seen Cas lately? We aren't playing Saints. You are setting the bar pretty low if you would be happy with a battling defeat. That's not to say that they don't have a performance in them, but personally I would be gutted to lose.

Secondly, if we do go a few scores behind, you would like to think we will show a bit more character with it being a knockout game than we have in the league games.

We should be winning this without too many problems or we may as well throw the season's towel in now

Lane ahead of Hadley in the pecking order for me easily

We need to see hadley given a few games at 2nd row before writing him off. He's been all over the place in the games he's featured, mainly as a middle but also in the hooking role and at centre. I'm more bothered about his injury record than his ability

Hi Town88...Well I guess we think the same on our respective teams.
I’m basing my thoughts on our last time out against Cats, when just about our first choice pack was rolled over easily once there was daylight between the teams. And Cats had players out too.
What may make a difference for us tomorrow is the return of Sneyd and Kelly. I hope so.
But we’ve been shellacked 4 times now and I just don’t know which Hull FC side will turn up anymore.
And even when we match up for the first 20 mins, I still get worried when the opposition goes over twice in quick succession as I feel these days a third score pushes the barn door wide open.

For me, it’s a mental thing with Us. Any daylight and you can see the confidence and will-to-win drain from our lads. Till this addressed I’ll remain concerned.
I’m desperate for a win but I’m not confident. I’d love to be wrong tomorrow and see us get another Good Friday performance. That would be brilliant.

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I just thought the bar was already very low with the Cats defeat I found embarrassing. So a battling defeat is not good I agree but it’s a big improvement on throwing the towel in.

Personally, I think the we should show equal character in all games we play. Be it knock out or for league points. Especially now “The monkeys off our back” in the cup.
If anything, i believe it’s the GF they should now want the most, and that means getting the highest league position possible.
But our FC ( like everyone) appear so far behind the top 2 that maybe your right , we are targeting the cup, so that would mean your right again, we should expect to see a bit less character when it’s not a knock out game.
I’d hope not but you may well be right.

I think Radfords whole game plan is based on percentage rugby and fine margins. We rarely steam roller a team, we prefer the path of grinding them down - all Radfords game plan. Its what weve done for seasons now and granted its actually worked till recently. I think the problem now is if a team gets a few scores ahead of us we cant use the percentage grinding out technique and as we all know theres no plan B so we just cave in - only time this doesnt happen is when we suffer a major injury so have to change tactics ala moving Griffin to full back

This is a MUST WIN - no more to say