Its easy to say we played ****, but at the end of the day it came down to bad decisions and poor discipline again. We dominated field position and made easy yards for most of the game, with Ellis standing out with some good drives, yet when it comes down to finishing off the sets it was very poor. We had multiple sets in their twenty and tried to use brute force to break the line, it happened once with a great try from Tickle, but when you suck the defenders in you then need to spread the ball and find the gaps, we just failed to do this. Granted Miller is young and raw, hes been thrown in at the deep end and it shows, Heramia is a hooker, and it all just looked too dis-jointed, I am sure with Horne and Holdsworth on the field our attack will improve considerably.
However with ten minutes to go, this game was close, we defended well and pinned them in their own forty, and twice let them kick a 40/20 to get them out of jail, when they had already come close to kicking one. Briscoe should have been much deeper for their last 40/20, its criminal letting them kick one on the last tackle of a set with the game on a knife edge. Its play like that what over shadows the hard work the boys had just put in for five tackles previous.
Maybe I watch my team through black and white spectacles, but IMO I don't think we played that bad, not to the extent that we need to call for the coaches head. If we are to be a top four team then some of our first choice players just aint good enough, nearly every player we have signed in the last few years has come from teams that have finished below us, and in retrospect how many of these same players would Wigan or Wire have been looking at signing, with the exception of Ellis my guess would be none. I maybe wrong and we might end up winning a Challenge Cup and get to the Grand Final, yet I feel we are five or six quality players short of being a top side, and it shows.

Good post mate, think we need 4 more top players, thought our forwards did ok last night, but the backs apart from odonnell didnt fire, an example was bradford second try, yeamo and briscoe just stood on the halfway line at least miller bust his gut to get back,we really need our halfbacks on the field,wont cure everything but we will improve, oh well wash the shirt get my tickets next week and heres hoping

We played well.. I though we dominated the forwards but just lacked the creative spark once we got to the opposition 20 like we always do.

I don't think were playing as badly as some people make it out. Like many have said, in the games we've lost about 4 of them we should have won.
Easy saying it now but it's true. Either it come down to conversions or bounce of a ball.

Get Horny back on the pitch and i think all of that will change. Certainly need him back.

It's interesting that Horne is seen as pivotal to any hopes we have of relative success this season.
I reckon 87.3% of this board had him down as a cover/squad player at the beginning of this season.

Nearly, 88.8%.

In fact only Seb and Standee rated him.

A couple of fine judges.

Agree with OP ,as much as I love to see my bitter rvals lose( and believe me I do love it) you are just fine tuning away from winning 4 from 5 as opposed to 5 straight defeats, you don't throw the baby out with the bath water , I got a bit upset with the HDM with the four page sandercock kangaroo court and thought I hope they treat gentle the same way but on reflection it now looks unwarranted ,and you could be going to wembley in the next 8 days something I can only dream may happen to our club ,couple that to your 2005 victory and 2008 appearance it ain't bad is it folks

Getting to Wembley (and better still winning!) would be fantastic for the club...but it shouldn't be allowed to paper over the cracks of how poor our league has been.

Season Ticket sales and league home game revenue are what keeps SL clubs in business, and only 9 wins all season just isn't good enough.

true.
Winning the cup is a lottery and luck. Being consistant in the league and winning more than you lose keeps the punters coming back.

I think that is the point. We don't have enough game breakers to transform the 'should've won' games into points on the league ladder!

This morning, I watched Roosters v Cronulla Sharks, ( Sam Moa had a great game, and got good raps from the commentators), but I was so impressed with the Roosters especially, by their sheer determination and enthusiasm to gain every last inch from every drive,and to keep the game flowing, by superb passing and backing up the player with the ball. And then I realised these were the same things that we saw from Sammut, and Le'Strange when they came on for Bradford on Fri night. Is this an Austalian thing,or is it in our case,an example of some english players complacency, who know that they won't lose there place in the Semi? Whatever it was most of the FC players did'nt have the mind set or nous to deal with it. No doubt we'll find out next weekend.

In the unlikely event we did win the cup who do you think would then say that we'd had a good league campaign ? I don't hear anyone claiming that we have from club to fans. Where's the cover up ?

If we win the cup I wouldn't care less. Would be massive for Hull FC.

Saw Peter Sharpe in the Sharks dressing room at half time,bet he was glad not to be the head coach.

Good to see youv'e got Mick scott as youre logo, he was my brother-in-law and best friend, nice to know he's still remembered

What would we give to have Mick and the rest of that great pack now?