But reputations wax and wane, and in our case wane a little more. The late great Alan Hull's lads came to the Vic on 21/9 fresh from an apparently impressive Wilko inspired victory over the old men of Stains, and we were fresh from yet another defeat. 0-2 this year and a string of bad'ns stretching right the way back to a Christmas ruining loss at the Vic to Falcons in 07.
Were always improving aren’t we. We "improved" against Sale, allegedly. Would the new improved Sarries huff and puff their way to another flaccid loss or was that a flying pig I just saw. To be honest my long suffering son and I turn up more in hope than expectation and have done since Adam Powell was a lad.

After 12 mins an Adam Powell break leads to a penalty to us. Again I felt that Mr Richards could have played on but he’s the ref and if the ball is buried he shouldn’t. We kick for touch (I can’t read my notes here), and from the subsequent scrum they’re up in the front row. Penalty 6-0.
I have to say that Aguerro is having a hell of a good game against Hayman, and what about our line out! Top stuff.

We are very much on top (Bet we lose) and a spot of 7's leads to a penalty to us as Newcastle Kill The Ball (NKB) 9-0.

Ah that’s better; Glen panics in broken field possession and hospitals De Kock. They get a line out but take 15 mins over it. Their hooker is Andy LONG by name and nature. But to be fair, with 4 primary jumpers in our 8 where is he supposed to throw it? Anyway when he eventually gets round to it the throw isn’t straight.
 Any way this is all going so well it’s faintly surreal, “Very enterprising and entertaining stuff " My notes say. Were on  top, they are  hardly a force, are being forced to tackle like crazy, and we have the edge in all facets off the game, Including grubber kicks by Cencus.

And now, 35 mins, Jacko puts in a lovely David Humphreys’ style touch finder. With our line out it’s a top ploy. If we pin ‘em into their 20 and nick their throw we’re in business. We do - and are treated to the rare sight of Jacko drop goal. One more penalty from wide out on the right and its 15-0 to us at HT

"I don’t feel comfortable yet" says the bloke on my left. Too true. We’ve seen leads that would be unassailable if held by other teams evaporate in 10 second half mins too often. Fifteen "schmiffteen", lets hope we score first...........and on several successive occasions over the next 40 mins.

In fact as we all know we did just that. First Kameli bursts through a ruck and is hauled down by a hairy Wilko inches from their line. Not long after, Chris Jack’s lovely touch line grubber allowed Kamelli a crack a charging down the attempted Tom May clearing kick, which he did with aplomb.

Jacko finds Kamelli with a deft cross kick in our 20. He is already outside his man but deftly chips the cover, gathers deftly and as he is tackled deftly feeds Kev who shows commendable if deft speed into the corner resulting in a deft and rather wonderful 80 metre try which exemplifies the marvellous ambition with which we are playing. That’s, let me see, 25-0 with Jacko’s kicking looking a little tired.

Picture Credit: PhilFez

Eds Note: Sorry for recycling the title pun - I am out of inspiration.

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