63 mins ... Hunslet 32 Dons 6

71 mins ... Hunslet 38 Dons 6

75 mins ... Hunslet 42 Dons 6

Some work on this coming week for the Coach methinks. Will be interesting when we play them again at theirs in four weeks.

As Mr Hall would say - 'touched up'

79 mins ... Hunslet 48 Dons 6

FT ... Hunslet 48 Dons 6

Back...earth...bump

A weak side fielded.
Kesik a playmaker?
Fook my pitcap.
The defeat was set up inside the first ten minutes with our lack of discipline/competence/skill.
It was truly awful to see how it was and would inevitably develop that I couldn't watch beyond halftime.
That's was a Thornton cock-up that was.
If that is the limit of his control on those players God help us.
Fast rewind to last seaason ...

I know there was no choice but that was an extremely poor team selection! Playing our only decent & defensive hooker at half back was never going to go too well there's only so much someone can do out of position.
Losing picketts practically as soon as he walked on wasn't useful either!
Hoping all the injured are ok! Would point out positives but I don't think anyone performed to much standard today. Onwards and upwards in the league it is.

Well we will have a better side out and will make a game of it.
But I ain't going.
Made my mind up NEVER to go there again!

Dire performance , a kick up the back side .
Doherty went off injured early , a 2nd row forward to centre & Barnett carved us up.
Milton came on , went off injured.
Kelly played 1st half didn't appear in 2nd.
Picketts-O'Donnell sent off for an stamp at the play of the ball involving Waterman .
Gave away too many penalties AGAIN.
Kesik struggled with a leg injury before going off in 2nd half.

No subs after about 60 mins.

Hunslet fair play dominated the game from 1st minute.
Zac our man of the match & did a lot of minutes as did Nicholson.

Not a Dual Reg fan BUT we did miss Feka & our own Aizue.

GT kept the players on the pitch at the end of the game , I can imagine what he said !

We will not be playing Hunslet on the 13th April now as it is the CC 5th round day.

COYD

Are you really that poor without the D. .R. players? Hunslet are very average to say the least

On tonights performance we did miss him (Feka) , no excuses but the early injuries & sending off took its toll.
I'm sure we will perform better next Friday.

Not as bad as that usually, but sadly without players to create at the moment.
Which by the way is bloody annoying, since we have had plenty of warning about this problem.
Original stand-off plays one friendly game, never seen since.
His stand-in stand-off, a fullback made do by the way,now out for six weeks with injury (he's our goal kicker as well).
The scenario of limping along with one play maker and a hooker as a mate was there to see last night.
Even before the injuries we had NOTHING in attack that wasn't forward based and that wasn't one-out rugby.
Dire.
And will we get a stand-off?
At the whim of Hull we may!

York will be salivating.

I paid good money to travel there and I wish I had known the side that was going to take the field in advance.
Because I would not have travelled.

There were quite a few Dons fans there last night.
Even the most cheerful of them can't have taken anything from that game.

We had nothing in attack before the injuries because we were camped in our own half without the ball for any length of time.

It can only hope and I am sure it will GET BETTER .

COYD

I think it's a good thing that were out of the cup I know it generates money but it is extra games for injuries let's stay fit and concentrate on promotion

It brought back memories of that fateful day at the start of last season when Hunslet stuffed us at the Keepmoat in a friendly, and we all know what happened afterwards.

Joe Pickets has history of being red-carded. He presently holds the record for the most red cards to minutes played in a Dons shirt. It doesn't matter how good a player may be, if they have no discipline, they are no good to the team at all. This needs to be sorted.

I didn't keep a record of the penalties we conceded but according to the Dons Twitter feeds we gave away nine penalties. This is unacceptable. We should have a target of four penalties maximum per game. I don't have the stats but I would estimate that each penalty conceded is the equivalent of giving away on average around three points. Multiply the penalties by three to get a rough idea of the damage you do to yourself.

How much have we been relying on the DR players this season? That is the big question. After the N Wales win we all said that the Hull lads made the difference, and we nearly got caught in that match before we pulled away in the end.

5 of the 8 tries we scored at Keighley were scored by players who didn't play at Hunslet. Hunslet saw no Feka, Aizue, Carr, Foster. Matty Welham. Turgut, or Reece Dean.

Okay, we probably had no choice to change the team due to the Hull lads not being available and injuries that we may not be aware of but all teams will struggle to some degree with such a big change in personnel from one game to the next.

Yes, we're all down to earth with a bump. Let's hope the character of the players means we can get back to winning ways in the York game, although there will be a fair few ex-Dons who will be trying to stop that happening!

For the most part, teams are never as good as their last win (Keighley) and never as bad as their last defeat. But you have to stop losing becoming a habit. We know what that can do from last season and sadly Donny Rovers are in a similar place right now.

Good points DM. The proof will show up on Good Friday I suspect. My worry is that with Hull having two big games over Easter we may be restricted with the players via DR and with not having a regular 6 & 7 combo as yet it may tell on us.

One thing is for sure any sign of a return to last years bad old ways will kill off all the goodwill so far.

You're right, Moonlight, we can't be sure how much Hull will be able to help us over their busy Easter period. They've got to look after themselves first.

Gary Thornton said that one of the problems last year was that you've got to get the spine of your team right. With Tom Carr being injured and Jordon Howden out for a considerable time, we're struggling in that department, especially when we don't get help from Hull.

I love Kyle Kesik but he's not really a half-back. We need his toughness at hooker coupled with some pace provided by either Keiran Cross or Ben Frankland when one of them comes off the bench.

We might have Jason Tali in the team next week. That should give us a boost.

Because we haven't got a second team, when players like Mike Kelly, Mark Castle, Joe Pickets and Sam Doherty do come in, they're not going to be match fit either, which doesn't help. We can probably get away with this when we play some of the lesser teams in the league but the better sides will exploit any weaknesses.

Time to move on from last night and as someone else has posted its one less game to run the risk of injuries. The promotion campaign has to be the priority, not matter the alleged 'romance' of the cup.

Line drawn -----------------------------------------

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Joe Picketts faces no further action from his sending off v Hunslet , sending off sufficient was the verdict.
Some good news , lets see him making headlines on the pitch.

Yeah good news.
He didn't do his match fitness much good though with his five minute outing did he?
So can't see him lasting ...

What for 80 mins or the season.