Doolittle

Swinton could become the new Oldham with this appointment, i.e. a run of lost Grand Finals!

I'm a bit under-whelmed by this signing, but he will make up the squad numbers and will be relatively cheap. If everyone is fit, he won't make the side, but when is everyone ever fit? Agar needs to find a new scapegoat in time for next season.

Where there's blame, there's a claim!

Indeed. I don't recall a full RFL inquiry after that incident shown live on BBC1 on a Saturday afternoon. Robert Hicks (linesman) was hit with an object that day. http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/8311...llenge-Cup.html

September 11th must have hurt you more than most! Hudgell cranked up the acrimony by daring to get us back into the top flight. You need to learn to share.

Fav: Hull Kingston Rovers Other clubs: Hmmmmm. difficult, as it appears to change from time to time. When we were in the lower leagues, I used to watch SL on tv and mostly wanted the Bulls to win. Now being in amongst the big boys, I look at the teams we left behind and have huge respect for Batley in particular. Oh, and I love whoever Hull happen to be playing on any given week!

As someone who attended, I was embarrassed by the behaviour of a section of our support on Friday night. Throwing anything onto the pitch is just not acceptable no matter what the provocation. I hope that the cctv has good images to allow suitable identification of the offenders. I know that Rovers are co-operating fully with this process, but its fairly hard for me to understand how the club can take any action other than banning individuals after the event. The problem appears to be beer-related. The official club coaches are beer-free, but there is always a multitude of pub-run buses for the big games. There was 28 coaches at Wigan on Friday night and about 24 of them would have been organised privately by various pubs in the area. I would welcome serious suggestions as to how Rovers can take preventative measures to improve the behaviour next season. Perhaps all us who travel by car should be sorting out the drunken masses - although I suspect I will be recovering in hospital for a while after that one!

There is an extremely high level of interest in the Hull derby. Folk who normally have no interest in the game have been asking me to get tickets for them. I expect this game to sell out with a 23,000+ gate. It is rare for a play off fixture gate to exceed the corresponding league gate, but this will prove the exception. And I will miss it all due to a badly timed holiday!

Rovers have consistently been garbage on all previous visits to Belle Vue in SL, so for that reason alone, I'm expecting Rovers to finally turn up for this fixture. However, throw in the Cooke factor and it's extremely hard to call. Head says Wakey by 2, heart says Rovers by 4.