Agree we have gone into the last 2 seasons with injured players.

There was a playmaker for Hunslet called Wray, but he was black. A chunky guy who also played for other clubs and was class about 10 years ago.
It might have been Wraye though.
Jermaine Wray/e?
Somebody remind me.

Jermaine Wray, i remember him well. A constant thorn in our side when we played against him.

His last season was with London Skolars in 2013. Before that he'd played from 2009 to 2012 at Keighley. I seem to remember him coming off the bench and playing at hooker... always causing us problems.

Yeah, saw him against us vs Keighley and Hunslet.
He was a hooker who scooted like Danny Houghton does.

The bookies seem to have settled on a 12 point handicap for the Dons today.

I will be disappointed if that isn't covered with us being at home.

Yep, me too. Unless there are adverse circumstances like injuries early on, yellow cards or even red cards, we've got to beat teams like Hunslet at home by at least 20 points if we want to consider ourselves to be up there with Barrow and Toronto.

Zac Braham and Jack Wray miss out.

Mason Tonks makes his return via the bench.

HT Dons 16 Hunslet 6

Dons tries - Martin, Cross & Tonks
Goals - Carr 2

FT Dons 29 Hunslet 24

Tries - Wright & Tali
Goals - Carr 2
D/G - Carr

Get out of jail.
Hunslet absolutely battered us for most of the second half and their fans must have been well peed off that they didn't win.
It was only a great offload by Feka and great play by Wright that saved us.

The game was good to watch and a right contest. Hunslet were well up for that in an overly physical way, I thought.

There was a catalogue of bad things from Donny.
Unfair or not, someone needs to have word with Welham.
He had a great game, but he gets up moaning to the ref at every tackle and eventually gave a penalty away for moaning and handbag pushing which enabled them to equalise.
The very next tackle on him and he was moaning again to the ref.
Jesus!

Barnett had a mare with handling yet Doherty hardly got a sniff .... crackers.

We decided to sit in the middle of the Hunslet fans in the second half.

That was different let me tell you.

They did win the vocal contest though.

We should have pressed on after getting in front but through bad discipline and bad defending we helped them back into it.

Credit to Hunslet, they came and gave it a good go and as S/O said, their fans must have thought the game was there for the taking.

My hopes of a decent win were dashed. That's one step towards making me think we're not as good as I hoped we might be, and getting out of this league with this team is going to be tough.

We have power down the middle but teams are wising up to that now. You've only got to look how far in from the touchline their centre was defending. In fact, the action was so far away from the touch judge on our side of the field that he decided to move in-field by about 10 yards!





We should have been looking to get the ball wider, quicker to expose them but we didn't. Either the coach didn't latch on to it, or the players didn't think of it. Maybe we had a game plan of going down the middle and wanted to stick strictly to it.

I really enjoyed watching the game. It was full of commitment and effort. I could live with watching rugby in this division if every game was like this one - but there are too many games against the lesser sides that spoil this league. We've discussed that before.

On the evidence so far, are we good enough to get promoted? Regrettably, the answer is probably no. We're probably in the pack of four or five teams behind Toronto and Barrow.

Barrow conceded some points this weekend in the L1 cup. They won 28-6.

Too close for comfort. Poor discipline . A game of 4 quarters some good & poor spells from both sides .
Liam was head butted in the 1st half , if the touchie had been any closer he could have shaken the Hunslet players hand .

Do not like to single out players but RB is not good enough to lace LS 's boots, did not get out of 1st gear until the last play.
KK had a poor 1st spell which does not happen very often .

Will have to play much better next week !

Brad England was stand out.

RB had a stinker against his old club.
The Hunslet fans gave him some right stick.

I saw the invisible man on the pitch at the end of the game. In his tight trousers. Didn't see much of him during the game.
He is seriously living a lucky life at the moment.

Sorry S-O Brad England was ok ,thought Feka, Thackray , Cross , Doherty , Spiers & Tonks in his 2 shortish spells were better.

oops

This view from having 12 months out since we last watched the Dons at the KM. We need a settled half back pair, at times we looked like a team put together for this match only. The discipline is shocking and players were sucked into Hunslets rough house tactics and they rode on the back of that. We always look better when the old heads are on the pitch and its exactly that type of leadership that we need for the backs. Paul Cooke would have a field day with this side.

Sorry but we are not a top two side on this showing and next week promises to be painful. IMO and to sum up we need a new coach and a settled team.

DM if you look at the Newcastle result it bears no semblance of order so there is no need to think you are wrong. Sport always does strange things.

Totally agree 100%, the plus side to today was we will only need to re-seed the middle of the pitch

That is our strength, the Feka , Thackray & Wright finishing off was a good try ! Was it off a LW break ?

Hunslet played to the type of level I expected them to play to. They were very aggressive and keen. I thought we'd be too strong for them especially in the later stages. I thought we'd be able to pull away from them in the last 20 minutes.

Maybe through blind optimism I've talked myself into believing we're better than we are. I thought today's match was a good opportunity to prove where we're at, to prove we are better than the chasing pack and possibly third in the pecking order behind Toronto and Barrow. We didn't. It exposed our limitations. I agree with Moonshine: we're not a top two side, but are we a top five side?

I think we will probably make the top five but as Carl keeps telling us, it's a tough old league to get out of. It most certainly is when you're probably the fourth or fifth best team in the league!

I know we've had disruption in the halves but we look a one dimensional side that doesn't have a Plan B.

Kieran Cross had a rib injury going into the match ,was passed fit , he ended up defending on the wing in the 2nd half .
What will GT do next week at 6/7 with Hedges available & may be Howden fit.
Will he move Cross back to 9 . Was concerned about KK today especially in the 1st half .
LS has to come back into the side.

a win's a win so well done lads..

Its a tough call next week because normally my preferred hooker would be cross as he gives us more options and knows where the line is but were gonna be under the pump a bit so wouldn't be surprised to see kk in mainly for the defensive side of his game

It is a bugger when your side wins to maintain their 100% record.
Has the nous to take a penalty and a field goal.
Gives the fans a grandstand finish courtesy of a fine Tali try.
And yet we still have reservations.

I suppose from the coach's and Carl's view, they must be baffled.

But I think the reason fans are reticent is that they can see a good squad, they know we can click and probably blast any team in this division.
BUT we are not organised as a squad for the full 80 mins.
We are winning thanks to individual brilliance from players like Cross and Feka.
We are in fact poorly organised in terms of attacking set up and in the little things that give away penalties UNECESSARILY.
Last tackle interference is unforgivable.
But we do it.
The side seems leaderless, instead relying on the old heads like Feka and Kes to get something going.
That is got to be up to GT to get right.
The elements are there and credit to him for bringing them together.
But he really needs to maximise their worth.
They are less than the sum of their parts.
But it is in there, it really is.
COYD