Hull Kingston Rovers 24 Salford City Reds 28

I think it would be a fair statement to say that not many of us made the journey to East Hull in good spirits or optimism for this one. With Huddersfield starting to kick into some form it was obvious that we needed to start getting points from somewhere & on paper the trip to the top-flight new boys looked an attractive proposition. However, recent capitulations meant that even Bobby had chalked this one down as a near certain defeat.

Initially I had planned to travel with the lads via Doncaster on the train but a late change of heart by Nic & Janice meant that I was going to travel with them on the train to Selby & then the rail-replacement bus. This of course meant that we could just buy tickets to Selby & jump the bus, thus saving us £12. However, when we got to Piccadilly, surprise surprise, all their mates were there which would leave me pretty much in limbo for the rest of the day.

The bus to take us to Hull must have come straight off the set of Heartbeat, it was ancient. The spectacle of it revving it's arse off on the A62 while the whole of East Yorkshire was zooming past in the outside lane would have been comical if it wasn't for the fact that I was ready for a cheeky beer or 8.

I settled down in the Admiral of Humber & watched the Wolves v Birmingham game followed by the 1st 10 minutes of Newcastle v Chelsea before Paul phoned to say he'd arrived. He'd met a KR fan on the bus so we all shared a taxi up to the ground together. Paul didn't have a ticket so we found the ticket office & sorted one out for him. No pubs around the ground really so we just had a couple of cans outside before making our way onto the rickety temporary stand that housed our fans (& a good few KR fans too). Basically, Hull KR had decreed that if you had a ticket stub from both this game & the forthcoming Huddersfield game, you would have priority for the Hull derby at Craven Park in July so plenty of floating supporters were out for this one. They were also no doubt geed up by the speculation in the days leading up to the match that Paul Cooke, Hull FC's classy playmaker, was about to make a stunning cross-city move.

As the teams came out the one good thing was that we were wearing our white change strip. a shirt in which we were undefeated so far. Whether it was the shirt or not, something had the players fired up as in the 1st set after the kick-off Bertie sent Robbo through a gap which had us with men over on our left. Robbo fed Aaron, Aaron Moule who drew the man to send Wilshere in at the corner to start the gooning off. Wilshere added a brilliant conversion. In the next set, a penalty piggy-backed us down the field & Robbo created an opening for Luke Dorn to send us bouncing around with the "Dorn, Dorn, Dorn, Dor-Dorn" chant. Again the extras were added. From the next set, another penalty & another line-break on the left hand side & Aaron, Aaron Moule dived over to just about ground the ball. Wilshere couldn't repeat his touchline heroics with the boot but with a little over 7 minutes played we were 16-0 up & KR hadn't touched the ball yet. How easy was this going to be?

Err, not very was the answer. We started to turn ball over & allow the hosts easy yards. Also, for this game the RFL had appointed a part-time ref, Gareth Hewer, who not having dealt with a super league crowd before seemed a little intimidated by the constant shouts of forward & ooh's after every Salford tackle. Having awarded us 2 penalties in that blistering opening 7 minutes, we wouldn't receive another for the remainder of the match.

15 minutes before half-time & with a real sense of inevitability, Gannon went over & Morton added the extras. From the next set, O'Neill forced his way over but thankfully Morton's kicking was not to his usual impeccable standards & so we remained 6 points up at the half.

The next score looked vital & ominously it was the home team who crossed with new man Lennon finishing Cockayne's break, again Morton failed to find the target, 14-16. Step forward the little maestro as Robbo made a break & raced over from halfway, goaled by Wilshere & we had daylight again at 14-22. All the pressure came from the home side though & we had scares when both Lennon & Gene got over the line only to lose the ball in the act of grounding it.

A nervy final quarter was set up though when Jon Goddard got over to narrow it to 20-22. However, we mainly weathered the storm with a few moments of good fortune thrown into the mix & then on a rare foray into the opposition half, Hodgy squeezed over & Wilshere added a vital goal to give us breathing space. Still we couldn't relax though as KR fought back through an unconverted Andreas Bauer try to mean that we had to bite our nails until the final hooter brought us blessed-relief & much goonage all round.

After celebrating & cheering the players through their warm-down, myself & Paul got on a bus back into town to have a couple in the Admiral of the Humber before getting a bus back to Selby & a train to York, stopping off to have a few more pints in the Maltings (a quality pub), before a train back home. All in all a shit day out for me but a priceless victory if it can save us from the dreaded drop.