So, in a month on the road the wheels of the Hornets bandwagon seem to have loosened considerably. What started reasonably with a win at Keighley has ended with disappointement and just two points from a very possible 6 or 8.
And it seems to be Hornets' leaky defence at the heart of the problem.

Having conceded a whopping 422 points this season - an average of almost 23 per game - you have to look as far down the table as 13th to find a side that's conceded more. And who's that? Barrow who embarrassed us completely at Craven Park. And with half the points difference of Featherstone just one place above us (125:61) with very similar points scored (509:483), it could hit very hard indeed come the shake-up at the end of the season.

Oldham's new coach Steve Molloy has identified defence as the key factor in turning round their season - and we could do worse than take a leaf from his book.

If it's true that defence wins you games, that's where Hornets should really be concentrating. We saw last season - and in rare flashes this season - that if scoring opportunities arise, we have enough talented players to play the off the cuff football to capitalise on them. And the platform for this would be a stern defence.

Several times this term Hornets have been caught severely napping. I'd love to see how many slack tries we've conceded on the last tackle having thought we'd done enough on defence - when in truth, you've only ever done enough when you come away with the ball.

Respect for possession has hit an all-time low this season. Several times we've played huge tracts of the game without the ball, having gifted it over under no pressure.

Repeated sets of six on defence take their toll - it's been proven to many times that if you repeatedly give the worst of teams the ball ten yards from your own line, they'll score eventually.

Peter Regan had a stat that stated that the critical number of errors a team could make was 18. Basically, he reckoned that all teams that lost made 18 mistakes or more - and if you kept the error rate below that, you had a chance.

Whether that's an arbitrary number or not, it focuses you on the fact that errors cost you games - and Hally should be drumming it into players that dropping the ball and dropping off tackles will not be accepted.

You don't have to be a world-beating side to succeed in the NFP - just a solid, hardworking unit that gets the basics dead right. Play out your six, put the opposition in their worst possible position, tackle in numbers and don't drop the bloody ball when you have it. It's the sort of stuff you tell 10 year olds.

It's to be hoped that a tightening of the hatches is underway. Stop giving the opposition the ball, knock 'em down - and the tries will come.

We have 8 games remaining , five at home. A possible 16 points on offer and a realistic chance of a very successful run-in. With the next three games at home we have a good opportunity to steady the ship, gain some momentum and put in a big push.

Let's see it happen.