I believe that despite all the talent and depth in the squad, keeping Ellis on the park and leading the team through the tough times is essential. If he'd played on Friday I believe we would have won. He's been that good this season in my opinion. Time and again we struggle when he is off the park (20 mins he was off vs Wire fort example). He brings that certain X to the team. Seems to lift them as he leads from the front and is there with the orders. If we have him in the 17 for 80% of the remaining games I feel top 4 is the minimum we can achieve.

Overall though I predicted a top 4 finish and I have faith we will remain in the 4. Final positions comes down to luck But the game against Widnes and 60 minutes against Rovers show how fragile our faith can be. (I'm not talking fickle fans). We need to be consistent and must string together performances that raise the crowd and build confidence.

The defeat to Wigan was a blow. They imho have been below average this season and yet they still have a culture within their ranks to pull off the wins when the games are tight. (I ignore their game against Wakey as I honestly can't see that happening again, and suspect some may have played their last games in cherry and white). Castleford game was a wake up call which took us 160 minutes to recognise. We honestly should not be losing at home.

I've been particularly impressed with Bowden, Houghton and Washy. I was one who saw no apparent reason for bringing Washy back, but I have been mightly impressed with his performances. Nothing spectacular but he does all the basic stuff brilliantly and lays a platform for the stars of the show.
Houghton has been a reverlation. I never considered him to be international material. Too slow round the ruck with his delivery. But he has come on really well this season so far. I just hope he stays fit for the season.

I'm disappointed that Yeaman is still star of the show. Logan for me showed his inexperience and cost us on several occassions. Hopefully he is learning and will be back better and stronger.

I could go on, but I think we are all just about on the same hymn sheet. Going well. So far so good. Certainly plenty of room for improvement, but equally this year is as good a year as I can remember for us to give it a good go. It will be great to see Wire, Catalans and us in the top 4 come the end, just to shake things up a little. But its a long way to OT and Wembley. I worry about our mobility in the heat of the summer. But thats for then. I'll just enjoy the moment for now. I'll even be listening to radio 4 on Thursday and hoping for a bit of luck there.

Whilst I agree with the above statement, I also think having Shaul would've won us the game. We made far more meters and the massive difference was the lack of support play for those breaks. Shaul would've been backing Frank up each time and we'd have been laughing as Leeds had their heads down. We let their confidence grow, you could feel it happening from Western Terrace and as South Stand grew louder, so did Leeds. We need to be the type of team that puts teams to bed and doesn't allow them to gain confidence, and support play clearly needs to be a priority for all players, not just Shaul!!

leeds made almost 100 more metres than us on the night

The three clubs above us have won 8 lost 3 so I'd agree 7 v 4 is not a bad return. Radford is nursing the squad through a part of the season where I believe injuries have hit us badly in the past - especially when feeling the need to get them back before fully recovered. Keeping players on the sideline until they are fit and taking the odd risk with team selection (like against Warrington and Leeds) will hopefully pay dividends at the "business end" of the season. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing the team play on firmer, drier grounds (not artificial ones).

Feeling more and more hopeful that some of my bets might well come in - the odds have certainly shortened since the start of the season.

We started with a new blend and they nor we didn't how good it would be. Half way through we know we are actually pretty good. The brain fart apart, our few losses have been even narrower than last year's. We've learnt game management, we now have the mind set to win games from behind. If from this good start Radders can instill hunger and desire rather than over confidence and complacency that has been before then we might just be in the mix up for a shiny pot with ribbons on it.

Sidewards doesn't count!!!