Hull FC • Re: Castleford at home

We did what was needed, and in the end, after a scratchy first half, we won fairly comfortably, although that was as much to do with Cas being poor as it was with ourselves. Certainly, Castleford's self-belief seemed to evaporate fairly smartly after those two quick tries early after the restart, although their score to bring it back to within six was arguably the best of the game!

Overall, I quite enjoyed the afternoon's entertainment. Yes, we will need to play better in the remaining games, and we are capable of playing better as we have shown in recent weeks, but amazingly, after looking so directionless in March/April, we are in the mix for a play-off spot with eight games to go, a pretty amazing turnaround from where we were back then.

We undoubtedly have weaknesses to work on, but then so do the other sides in that mid-table group, there's no-one in the cluster just above us that we need to be that fearful of. There is at least one, possibly two, play-off spots up for grabs. If we can replicate in the next eight games what we have achieved in the last eight then we won't be too far off. Qualifying for the top-six would represent a successful season for this squad as we lack enough true quality to be serious challengers at the very top.

What that would say about the standard of SL 2023 I'm unsure, but I'll take being in there come September!