Last updated at 07:35, Friday, 12 March 2010

AFTER what was probably the worst possible draw in this year’s Challenge Cup I was on my way to Cockermouth at 8.30am on Sunday morning to collect our minibus for the trip to West Yorkshire.

I had to laugh. Here I am with a 300-mile round trip ahead of me – a breeze really after last weekend’s 700-plus to Neath – and I was thinking about Stevo’s comment on Sky on the previous night.

Huddersfield’s excellent performance was said to be a reward for the travelling fans – they had only gone to Wakefield! How on earth did they manage a 14-mile trip on a Saturday afternoon, goodness knows what time they would get back home!

Anyway I collected the bus and headed home, plenty of time to check the bus over, collect my stuff and get up to the Travellers Rest to collect our small but happy band of travellers.

No parties this week – the away game at Gateshead saw one of our number hit the big 60 – so just the usual banter behind me.

After a short break at Scotch Corner we were off down the A1 and the score prediction sheet was doing the rounds. I was driving so no chance to quietly jot a couple of scores down, I had to tell the wife so she could write it down.

I had been watching Featherstone’s progress over the previous weeks and a 60-odd pointer at Hunslet in midweek left me thinking a certain defeat was on the cards, especially since they had rested nine first team players that night.

I should point out that the object is to try and win the money, it’s not a wish list, I didn’t want to get beat, just to win the pot. Not a popular move, especially with the wife - two selections, both Town wins! I couldn’t even pay up. I was driving after all, so I owed the pot £2.

Well they say every cloud has a silver lining; the only ray of light after a poor performance was the knowledge that I had won the prediction comp. I did, but in name only, the wife put it straight into her purse, she even told me on Monday morning that I owed her £2.

I say it was the only ray of light on a bad day but to be fair we were beaten by an excellent team, I think they will be right up there at the business end of the season, possibly winning the Championship.

We didn’t play spoiling tactics and try to slow the game down to keep the score more respectable, some would say we should have done.

Our defence wasn’t the best it’s been this season and our go forward was very limited, mostly by the speed at which Featherstone were off the mark at every play the ball.

Hopefully this week will see a different outcome against what should be a good Championship One team.

The general consensus of opinion was that Gus Frazer would have been our man of the match. He got through a ton of work in defence and was always there willing to carry the ball in to spell the forwards.

Back to work on Monday, just enough time to book the bus and accommodation for our trip to London for the Skolars game, another 600-plus miles. How on earth would the Huddersfield fans manage?

Allan Lamb

First published at 19:27, Thursday, 11 March 2010
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk