STEVE P

This whole thing keeps going backwards and forwards with all of us catching snippets of gossip and seemingly no corroboration for any of it. I'll be glad when the announcement finally comes. If the future of the Dewsbury club is linked to the announcement in any way we have to hope that it is all for the good of the club. No doubt it will be spun that way, and you shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. There is however no harm in having a quick squint underneath it to make sure there are no trap doors there, out of which will pour the Greeks when it drops dark.

Yes, you do have to say that all round Hunslet were the better side, and losing Addy early on was never going to help. Someone else said they noticed him being assessed on the field just before kick off. That was right in front of where we were standing and it did indeed look like a last minute fitness test. Hope he will be OK for next week.

You sort of miss my point. Whether or not you subscribe to the idea that professional sportsmen shouldn't be asked to perform more than once a week the fact remains that we had to. That was where we were. Presumably the coaching team remembered that was what had happened, yet they sent the team out with a game plan that played directly on our own perceived weakness. If the team is young and still learning, as we keep being told. then perhaps a bit more and better direction from their mentors would help them to learn a bit quicker.

As I said, we'll just have to wait and see.

I just so hope for you that, before the end of the season, you see Delaney or Graham score from somebody's kick. I feel that there is much that you will be able to forgive if and when that happens.

The three matches in eight days excuse doesn't really cut it. If we were tired why try to make the game into a muscle contest. We have the smallest pack in the professional game, yet we continually revert to trying to win games down the middle. Our pack is too small, our half backs aren't particularly effective, but our three quarters are our most potent weapon. We are at our most effective as an attacking force when we move the ball about to bring the three quarters into play. You can't blame the coach for not twigging this yet. This is only his third year in the job.

I wouldn't care to comment on Mr Sawyer's period of tenure overall. Who knows what would have happened without him. The best we can say is that we're still here. We do, however, seem to have been treading water for quite a few seasons now. I just hope that, whatever comes of this Huddersfield thing, it will see us moving forward, even if it's only with small steps.

I was talking to 2 lads who are Fartown supporters at today's match. They were saying that the talk there is that the deal is already done. It involves Dewsbury Rams being bought by an individual connected to the Huddersfield club. Both clubs to retain their individual identity, but cooperating to their mutual benefit. Huddersfield to play at Flair Stadium for up to 3 years whilst their new stadium is built, with some games going back to Leeds Road if a bigger crowd is expected. The way they talked it didn't seem like a bad plan. Of course they may not be as in the picture as they made out and it may well happen completely differently. We'll just have to wait and see.

For 70 minutes Dewsbury endeavoured, without much success to batter their way down the middle with one man rugby. When the game was well and truly lost they opened up and scored 2 tries in the last 10 minutes and could have had another one if one more pass had been made. A lesson to learn from that? Possibly. Will it be learnt? Probably not.

Who remembers when Huddersfield and Sheffield 'amalgamated'? How long did the Sheffield appendage to the joint name last. Yes, Sheffield were reborn as a new entity, but not due to anything the amalgamated club contributed. If we end up as a combined club with Huddersfield, or a feeder club for the same, that will be me out of it, for good. Super League decided a long time ago that they didn't need the poorer, lower echelon clubs. Now they realise we can find game time for their fringe players, provide them with a pick of upcoming talent and run their second team for them. Oh, and some of us have a nice ground, ripe for development to Super Standards. Tell them all to get stuffed, and sort out their own liabilities.

Referees who pull up one team for something then let the same thing go when the other side do it are bound to get criticism, but having said that it wasn't her fault that we lost. Even though we scored right on half time you could already see that the Dewsbury pack were spent in the last few minutes of the first half. The Dewsbury forwards are keen, brave and pound for pound, as strong, if not stronger, than any other pack in our league, but the key phrase is 'pound for pound '. They are simply not big enough, and packs that can constantly be recycling big powerful lads like the Halifax coach has at his disposal will always wear them down long before 80 minutes is up. This is why we keep getting thraped in the second half. The forwards are having to give so much in order to compete early on that by half time there is little left in the tank. You could definitely see it yesterday. I said to someone at half time that I wouldn't back Dewsbury with 20 points start. I was wrong, but only just.

It's true that the defence is what is now letting us down, but I thought earlier in the season that the team put in some really impressive stints, especially close to their own line. Perhaps a lot was down to McShane organising things from the back.

Too true. Does anybody recognise the difference between coaching boys who play for fun and players who get paid for what they do? Never mind, it's a free weekend next week. Let's book a coach and all go to the seaside for a bit of a laugh. Worry about the week after later.

See the old half time talk has worked its magic again.

Can't say I'm happy to see York struggling, because they represent an option for everyone to achieve the upper echelons of the game given the right circumstances, but after the attitudes expressed by the Newcastle and York fans on this forum earlier in the year I am finding it hard to be too sympathetic. For me the simple root of the problem is that the players are over paid. That can be said of other sports too and the fault lies with the desperation to succeed of the competing clubs.