I’m travelling up for tomorrow’s game. I’m expecting our best hope is a defeat by only 10-14 points and suspect the biggest cheer of the day will be the applause for Adam Swift when he completes his second hat trick against us in 2 weeks.

As someone else mentioned, this time last season we managed a narrow win at home to Huddersfield after a disastrous Easter. So you never know, but realistically I think we do…..

Litten, Tindall and Jebson playing for the reserves today along with Balmforth.

I expect we will keep with 3 scores.

Hudds are the epitomy of average (which is leagues above us) but they do have players to own teams up.

For us to win any game it requires an attack..

28 - 10 Hudds.

Well I don’t know if I’m right. there is no other solution I can see other than what TS is doing- getting some playing structures in , practicing like hell, blooding some of the youth and having to put stuff in the paper and let the disgruntled fans tear him apart. As fans I think we must look under the surface to see that your green shoots are being planted but need watering and putting up with the odd trampling!

if Smith was so keen on stats then Okunbor would be cleaning the toilets.
Has to be some form of disagreement between the two kept in house.
Thats why you need fan forums so that difficult questions can be asked looking Smith in the eye rather than mentioning it but saying nothing in the HDM.
Just dont buy this not ready for S/L or its a fitness issue.
Lets face it Moy likely to play nine off the bench on Saturday.he is a skinny kid 10 stone wet through.You cant tell me that he is ready for S/L

reverse that score and you may be somewhere near

If this was Smiths first season you may have a point but its not
said before if anyone can tell me what Smith has done since he has been here that has enhanced the team on the field other than make us the most ill disciplined team in S/L i am waiting to hear.
I was happy to see Smith appointed coach but now he needs to go as we are going backwards with him in charge and the club is now the laughing stock of Super league

In our last 3 games we've conceded 8 tries a game on average, not sure how much our defence will have improved in a week?

Well at least I'll be warm watching the match. Honestly finding it hard to see us winning but typical of hull to do just that.

Balmforth great in attack scored two tries but I suspect it’s the defence and the ruck smith has an issue with.
Elsewhere thought Hodgson was the best on the park, Tindall up there with the worst.

Maybe Smith sees Balmforth's future at loose forward, especially with Hodgson coming through and impressing.

Ideally both have a future at the club, not just one of them.

Squad will be even weaker next year when Pearson reduces the playing budget even further

Tindall struggling for form judging him on todays performance.
Hodgson played well. Litten seemed to have a paddy when brought off.

It was hard to really gauge the performance given Giants were mainly made up of Academy players by all accounts.

Hodgson was easily the best player on the pitch, his distribution from 9 really is first rate.

Balmforth went well but like somebody else said he got caught out of the play on the floor a few times and you could see he was angry with this. His second try was him letting out some of the anger as he was just monstering through them.

The fact as Academy player in Ben Johnson was picked at 1 says a lot about where TS sees Littens future.

Our defense is bad in general so id take Balmforth missing a few tackles but actually doing something in attack. An aging Houghton will tackle all day but its getting us nowhere ultimately.

Ive not seen anything from Tindall so far.

Yet Smith continues to play Houghton who can defend but doesnt have an attack mode and poor ruck speed

Playing with fire if that happens, wont take much of a dropoff in pass sales for crowds to drop off and dip below the IMG 7.5k threshold. We are then solely relying on he stadium for good points as the 3 year performancss average will be dipping even further.

The fortunate thing is with Fev having money troubles and doubts about travel costs for Toulouse theres not a queue of strong applicants from the Championship.

I think that under the current IMG format our SL status is relatively safe. With or without an A-grade rating we are still, given our current circumstances, comfortably one of the top twelve clubs in the sport which keeps us within the elite.

My big worry would be if in, say two years time, a decision is made to abandon any ranking process and to go back to straightforward on the field promotion/relegation.
If, in that scenario, the promoted team turn out not to be the usual sacrificial lamb (such as Leigh last year) then we suddenly find ourselves in a straight fight with Cas/Salford/Leigh/whoever to avoid the drop. Having pruned the squad back to the bare bones, in the name of cost cutting, believing we were safe come what may, there then becomes a genuine chance of relegation for us rather than a theoretical one.

We all know what the sport is like for carrying out sudden U-turns at a whim. If we continue to go with ever weakening squads we will run the risk of being caught out by a sudden turn of events. Relegation would most likely see the end of the club in its current set-up. We are not equipped to survive outside the top flight.

A few years ago I would agree that Danny’s defence was great but Father Time has caught up with him and after 20mins he’s spent. Yet we still keep him out there instead of spelling him, so sadly his defence is not what it once was.

I see you guys are down to11th now of course it's all a part of the Tony Smith project.

Giants struggled against a enthusiastic London last week in the first half
Is there any chance we could be enthusiastic
Is that part of the culture ? To be enthusiastic ?

Giants decided to put London to the sword after a half time rollocking

Rovers took the foot off the gas last night as they did against us last week in the 2nd half

So we will find out if we have turned a small corner or if Smith has decided that it’s all irrelevant unless we win !

I assume he’s talking about the Culture being irrelevant unless they win !

And that is my point. If your only criterion is what happens on the pitch then fair enough. But if positive changes are happening behind the scenes ‘culturally’ to help us on the field for several years ahead then I have to support that. I don’t like being hammered every week but if I can rationalise it like I have then I won’t translate my angst into calling for Smiths head

Nowadays missed tackles result in tries so I reckon this coupled with fitness may be Smiths problem with Balmforth. Houghtons tackling has been vital to us over the years, his darts from dummy half too. He’s not James Roby but never get the criticism of Houghton as a player. He’s no captain though

It’s his passing from dummy half that gets me…he always takes a step and the defence is up…all the other hookers ping it from the ground and make sure we are on the front foot.

You've hit the nail on the head re current IMG format. Whether we like it or not it is the correct decision to focus on the club's financial stability as opposed to splashing cash we don't have on players that may / may not perform well. The current situation is hard to take but it will be well worth it if it results in a stable, sustainable club with a squad that has been "developed" rather than "bought" that is capable of competing. As you say, the sports administrators penchant for a sudden U turn is our biggest risk.