Its not too early

We are 50 to 60 points off our rivals, yes, before anyone says we have played a game less, but hands up anyone who thinks we'll pile 50 on Catalan?

Ok, maybe we should all come to terms with the fact that we won't be winning the league on points difference.

Who are you referring to as 'we' in the thread title ?

Are you people saying that because we are not scoring points for fun we haven't improved? Our pack and defense had been very good this year.

Wire score points for fun and we restricted them quite well.

London - we were by far and away the better side and only the sending off offered them any hope.

Salford - the pack were far better than Salfords and mistakes/penalties killed us. Despite that we still had a chance to win the game and again only conceded 3 tries I think it was.

Wakey - again the pack were completely dominant and only too much dropped ball kept us from posting a big score. The conditions played a part in that but also the changes are taking time to bed in. Apart from 2 "lucky" tries Wakey never looked close to scoring and in fact very rarely got anywhere near our line.

We are controlling games far better IMO and so far dominating in terms of territory unless we are giving away penalties (it took 39 minutes to concede our first penalty yesterday) so for the signs are good. We are obviously focusing a lot of effort into getting the defence right first and the attack is suffering a bit because of that. Let's just have some patience and see how we are going after weve played at least half the season.

I take it your repeat prescription is in the post.

Against Wire, we are good
Against London we were good and in full control until Moa's unjust red card.
Salford, we gave up too much ball and still nearly got something from the game.
Wakey, rubbish conditions against a team coached by someone with a bee in his bonnet against us.

Put some mellow birds in a cup and take a big sniff

Mellow birds? urgh

Let's just add a little context. First of all, only 4 teams have actually scored 50 more points than us. But even if we look at teams with 40 points more than us there are only 7. Of those, 4 have played Widnes, and the other 3 are Warrington, Wigan and Saints (all played 5 games too). If you expected us to be competing with those 3 already I personally think you're delusional.

Yes, our attack needs to improve, but it should do so the more we play and the players and systems gel. So in summary, yes it is far too early.

Well you're a right club apologist, aren't you? I think you need to realise that Gentle's been in the job for 4 months and 4 competitive games now, there should be little difference between us and Queensland.

am sure we have some moles on here from other clubs pretending to support fc, some of the drivel is unbelievable, we are doing ok imo and will get better, but we aint a top 4 team, that will take time, but imo we are going in the right direction

And come season end when we are 250 points off the team a place or 2 above us, 10 points a game, or 2 tries, is that cos we never gelled?

you can already see to the end of the season?!

and how we will go agianst the likes of widnes on dry pitches and not in the conditions we've had to play in so far!! were do we finish? how do we get on in the cup?

think its easy 2 see improvements! can see the difference in the attacking structure even if the cutting edge and final pass isnt quite there yet. But to be fair the weather barring salford has been dire for each game! compared to last yr or the last few id say 0 points from wire game-defence wouldnt have been up 2 it-dont think we'd have held on after the send off against london-salford was a let down this year but we not been good there for a while so who knows-and think we'd have lost yesterday in recent yrs,think we'd have crumbled! Be a good marker on friday!

yeah good point leeds finished 500 points behind wire and look how much that cost them.

Well at the end of the season we'll be assessing the team and Gentle in retrospect, so by definition it couldn't possibly be too early after the event, could it?

The point is you're making a snap judgement with too little evidence and seemingly unrealistic demands in any case. We're not good enough to challenge for the top 4, but anyone who thought we were going to be this season is a fool, or at least naive in the extreme.

Think we have to accept we haven't got the quality to challenge this season , we need a centre , a stand off and a couple of props to challenge the top 4 . Its a shame but think people have to be realistic and hope measures are being put in place for next season already.

It depends what you mean by challenge.

Are we as good as Wigan or Warrington, no. But I havnt seen much so far to suggest we are a long way off from Leeds, St Helens, Huddersfield and Catalans. We probably wont make 4th but I dont think it is an unreasonable target.

This new journey is in its very early stages. I can see improvements already and I'm sure we will only get better.

I'm well known for it

Peter Gentle and his coaching team know what needs to be done, and I believe they will get it right.

But it will not be overnight or after 4 games.

I'm sure we will start to see improvements in our attack as the season progresses.

Then next season he will have the opportunity to bring in some new players to improve the area's he believes need improving. Then we may start flying.

It takes time to build a top team. I'm willing to be patient and I hope my fellow fans will too.

5 points of of 8 is just about where I expected us to be before the season started. I expected a defeat to Wire at home, but us to beat Salford away.

If we had played like we have on firm pitches in decent weather, I would probably be a bit more critical and asking a few more questions, but you simply can't play attacking rugby successfully in the snow/sleet and our attacking play has been more conservative as a result.

As I have said in another thread, Saints on Friday gives us a better indication of where we are. I don't expect a win (our record there is shocking) but if we run them close I'd be confident that we can beat some of the big teams at home and get a top6 spot.

For me, it was always a risk appointing gentle and I'd have preferred an experienced coach myself, however we have certainly made some improvements so the early signs are positive, if not exactly good yet.

Only concern I currently have is that in each of the 4 games we've been in a winning position late in the game but have won only 2. Against wire we made a mistake and conceded at the end and were lucky to come away with a point in the end, against london we were totally in control and let them score 2 tries, against salford we were winning by 6 in the last 10 minutes only to lose by 2 and against wakey we were holding on at the end.

To me this smacks of either a lack of fitness/fatigue or a lack of concentration. I do wonder about the lack of back row rotation and the effect it has in the last 10-15 minutes and also houghton's ineffectiveness late on.

We also continue to lack a leader on the pitch for me. Yesterday just needed someone to calm everyone down and re-organise when wakey scored their 1st try.

Having said all that, I doubt that gentle actually has the quality of player that he needs in order to really achieve success with the system he is trying to play so we need to be patient and see how things progress.

I'm sure pearson will have a degree of patience but won't be happy to see us struggle this year

We weren't "very poor" against London Broncos.

As for Salford, yes a disappointing result but remember last season they beat Warrington and Catalans away. Sometimes results go against the form book.

Only four games gone. Lets judge the squad and Gentle at round ten.

On the contrary, we was poor against London then became very poor once Moa went off.

Our pack has been very good so far and been getting us into the position to put some points on the board but there is still some cohesion missing with the ball and when we spread the ball its very slow and simply catch and pass, no standing up defenders by somebody playing straight.

I must be on happy pills,I feel a lot better this season already.Things will improve,of that I feel certain.
Anything is better than what we have been putting up with.