Jamie Foster column

We are back in action this weekend after a fortnight’s break and we’re raring to go.

Defeat at Castleford spelt the end of our play-off hopes and it’s difficult to try and pick positives for these next two games.

We’re not daft and we understand that we cannot make the play-offs, no matter what we do. But we owe it to each other and to the fans to make sure we go out and perform against London and then Huddersfield next Saturday.

There have been times during the season when we have let each other down and that’s why we have not made the play-offs – and yet we believe that we are coming on as a team.

It wasn’t going to be a case of a quick fix with a one-season turnaround. It’s about planning ahead and that is what we are doing as a club.

That remains the long-term goal and you can see we are looking to build with the signings we have already made. I’ve spoken about them a couple of times and I’m genuinely excited about the four new recruits we have brought on board.

The arrival of Garreth Carvell, Luke George, Dale Ferguson and Lee Gaskell will make us significantly stronger next year. I think they will settle in really well under Franny, who is a good man-manager and a good coach.

He brings out the best in the players and is a bloke who you want to play for. As soon as you meet him, you want to do well for him and I think a lot of people would say that.

We owe London one this weekend. I didn’t play in the Challenge Cup defeat at their place but I remember listening to it on the radio and it was probably our worst performance of the year.

Beating London would have given us a good chance to beat Sheffield Eagles and have a good crack at Wigan in the semi-finals at Leigh.

I remember watching that thinking “this should be us” and, without being disrespectful to London, we believe we play a lot better brand of rugby than them. Hopefully we can go out and prove that.