WHILE I was disappointed with the result last week at Widnes I was pleased with the performance.

I thought against York we were the best team and didn’t come away with the win and, while I am not saying we were the best team at Widnes, we were certainly very competitive, and we had the opportunity to win the game.

Obviously it was disappointing we didn’t because I felt it was a valid score but, unfortunately, the bloke that mattered didn’t.

There were some good performances from our players.

READ MORE: Kear's post-Widnes reaction

We keep turning out different combinations at half-back, but I thought last week they were very creative.

Two of the tries we scored, David Foggin-Johnston’s and Connor Farrell’s, were very well created down our right-hand side and our middles did very well after the first 20 minutes.

So there are plenty of positives to take from the game, but we didn’t get any points and we need to start nailing not only performances but wins too.

This week we have another difficult game against Leigh.

Lots of people were talking about how they would struggle for quality players but when you look down their playing list you will see they have last year’s Super League Young Player of the Year, Danny Richardson, at half and their other half is Martin Ridyard. Liam Hood, who I think is a Super League player, is at hooker and they also have Luke Douglas and James Bentley, who are both on loan from St Helens.

Gregg McNally will be at full-back and we know all about him. So I will leave it to the readers to decide if they have any quality or not.

We need to play with the same urgency, the same work-rate and the same execution but perhaps just improve in those areas.

The thing we must get better is our start. I thought we started soft and lackadaisical and didn’t wake up for 20 minutes against Widnes. We need to be on the mark right from the kick-off for this game.

This week saw the first reserve grade fixture and I thought it was a great evening.

There were a lot of people watching, which is good, we played at a good venue against a competitive team and I thought that every player in the squad on show will have taken something from the game.

Dalton Grant benefited by returning from injury, a youngster like Alix Stephenson benefited from playing full-back and being Captain.

Elliot Culling, who scored a hat-trick and Brad Gallagher, who is still eligible for Under-19s, and who I thought was the man of the match, will both have taken something out of the game.

Each player has had the opportunity to have a competitive game.

Players like playing; they don’t want to be professional trainers; they want to be professional players and you could see that in the joy of their performance.

I think we must endeavour as a sport to buy into the concept so that it becomes an established part of every club.