The gulf in class is obvious to anyone. Even the wife's just said we're making it too easy for them.

Disagree. I thought it was superb work by Atkins. Great footwork and a fend. He's a shoe in for Englands left centre berth.

Also loved the way he mugged Westerman

Really soft tries. Pulling my hair out here because we are making the yards and playing with good intensity, but if you don't keep concentration and discipline you won't get anywhere.

Missing Obst, Whiting having a shocker in defence.

The first I agree. The 2nd was partly the sliding defence problem again, with all of the right hand side drifting in and Whiting not then having the pace to compete with Atkins once he had the advantage. Almost the same as Youngquest last week. Any quick winger will have an advantage over Whiting with an in and out, but we give them the room to do it by playing too narrowly.

I personally don't think the sliding problem is exclusive to the right hand side, it's just more common/apparent because most teams attack using their left more often, and Briscoe is so effective at last ditch tackling he often covers it up.

Give over man, it's not compulsory to blame the ref (unless you're a Hull fan). Wire are a class apart.

this Rugby Union maul is getting ridiculous

Best way to describe Hull FC tonight is all brawn and no brain.

Typical Hull performance under Agar tbh.

Good old Carvell.

Was just thinking the same, tonight typifies the last 3 years really.

Carvell should be missing next week now.

Seems to be a worrying sign that last set in possession; they've been doing all the tackling and hard work this half, yet we're the team bunching.

Again they get the faintest sniff and score.

Westerman has played his heart out tonight

Yep. They're a very good team, much better than us. I was going to complain about that one but Briscoe was clearly hobbling.

Positives?

Apart from the games almost over!

Westerman.

Agar's going

We kept the ball alive really well. We just needed to do more with it once we did.

I actually thought we played well. Wigan and Wire are head and shoulders above the rest of the league.
To keep them to 6 points in the second half showed real determination too.
No shame in tonights performance for me

I'd agree with that. You didn't play badly, just a couple of bad defensive reads in the 1st half, but Wire take every half chance you present them with. They were the same at Craven Park in the summer, (although we were poor that day as well!) Westerman had a very good game, certainly the man to build the team around for the next few years.

What was the attendance tonight? Looked very good on tv, with the West Lower quite full, I was thinking 16-17K. Surely this can't be right:

[urlhttp://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyleague/results/[/url

reminded me of the wigan game tonight, gave up 3 soft tries and found it difficult to unlock a superior teams defence!

16k+

That looked about right. It's not often you (or us) get travelling support like that, but there was a good turnout of Hull fans too.

16,000 ish I think. The fullest North stand I've seen outside the derbies and all ground areas looked quite full. Great illustration for Pearson of the disconnect between the club's potential and the current on-field reality.