Well what a day!! London kept their slim play off chances alive today when they came away with the points 3 seconds from time with a 10-6 victory. I believe we saw London’s whole season in this game.
The first points came after just 10 minutes when Dennis went over for a great try after sloppy play from both sides. He seemed to be the only one awake. Unfortunately Paul Sykes missed the conversion and I wasn’t aware at the time what affect that would have on the game.
London piled on the pressure and it looked like it was going to be the same old story. As London couldn’t get past that Hull defence all that possession and attacking play came to nowt as we lacked that final penetration, the same thing that has been lacking at times all season. This was the case when Martin went for the line and knocked on with tackles still left in the bag. You could feel the frustration in the crowd; however London went in at half time 4-0 up.
You always thought this was never going to be enough especially against a strong Hull side that beat Wigan one week ago. And as expected Hull game out very strong and London were playing catch up football for no apparent reason.
London were making silly mistakes knocking on in front of their own line and throwing the ball away. It was a mistake that led to the Hull try. After a pass didn’t go to hand, Hull pounced and Paul King came up with that all important try half way through the second half and Crowthers made sure he got the 2 points after an early miss from in front of the sticks.
It was getting very close to time and in all honestly London did not look like they were going to win and our dreams of making the play offs for the first time in history were fading fast. The clock was counting down. 15 minutes to go, 10 minutes to go…
It was then 5 minutes and I know I thought, "oh well we have lost", and the reason was because although Hull had played miles better than us in the second half London did not make the possession pay in the first half, which of course has happened to us many a time this season.
With just 5 minutes to go London became a different team. A team that looked like they had beaten the best this season and not the team that had slumped to losses in games they should have won. London upped the pace and Hull couldn’t keep up. It was then the last set of six and Ritchie made a great break and split the Hull defence. It was then we got another set of 6 from a penalty out on the far side and London had to score. The clock kept on counting time. 10 seconds and you knew it would take something special. It was then Dennis and Michael Gillette came together to put Dennis over the line and London to take the victory just 3 seconds from time. Sykes put the ball over the sticks to make it London 10 Hull 6 and even better news came when we found out Castleford had been beaten by Warrington.
If a picture paints a thousand words well then the picture of the Hull team and their fans creates just two in my mind and that is they were gob smacked. They really were stunned London had come away with the victory and Hull really couldn’t believe it. The noise to come out of Griffin Park was one of the loudest I have ever heard.
This means if we win our remaining games London will finish 6. However can we do it two games left against Leeds and St Helens? Two very tough battles. I must say I don’t have high hopes. However I thought London had blown it after losing to Castleford earlier in the season at Griffin Park. This season has been full of surprises lets see if London can pull off another two wins to seal the play offs in what has been an inconsistent season.
If we do make it that is good but you can’t help wonder about the dropped points. I make it about 10 and if we had those then London would have made the six already. Oh well lets not talk about all that and lets just hope London finish 6th. Next season looks good too after retaining the majority of the big names and hopefully bringing others in.
If London make it I believe they will go all the way as they have a nasty habit of turning up the results against the big teams we will just has to wait and see.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment