The loss, and more importantly, the second half performance last Saturday against Whitehaven, was just not good enough.

We went through an awful lot in the last few years to get back into the Championship. Throughout all that we knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into and what the requirements were.

Those include turning up, mentally and physically, for 80 minutes of every game. If you don’t you lose – it is as simple as that. There are no teams in the division who you can class as easy wins and therefore the mindset has to be on the button each week.

What’s more you need to have the mental ability to tough things out when needed. It is very rare that a side in rugby league dominates for a full game – it’s just the physical nature of the sport – so when the opposition is on top you have to make sure you keep mistakes to a minimum and when they do occur, you have to make sure you dig deep and get back on top.

It is too easy sometimes to feel sorry for yourself and let somebody else do the hard bits. We had an element of that last week for sure and Matt Diskin was furious post game. He wasn’t the only one.

People also need to be accountable for their actions too and this week in training that has been one of the focuses.

We now have two tough games, both away from home, Featherstone on Monday and then York the week after.

It has been made clear that there will be no sulking, no hangovers from last week, just a lot of hard work to put things right and to make sure the performances in those two games are of a higher standard.

We are well aware that they will need to be, but it has also been stressed that we are capable of getting results too. There isn’t much point turning up otherwise!

The lads know the expectations and I am sure they will respond.

The Featherstone game will be the first one with fans allowed back in and that is why it has been moved to a Monday night.

Anybody who knows the ground and the fans will also know that we could have picked an easier game to welcome spectators back to. It is a very hostile environment sometimes. Let’s hope we can quieten them all down with a win!

In the meantime, we continue to put in a lot of work behind the scenes for the return of fans to our home game on May 30 when Widnes arrive at Stalybridge.

I have mentioned before how important it is for fans to get back in the routine of supporting the lads – after all it is 14 months since we have had that privilege so it will be a big occasion for sure.

There will be plenty of changes to a ‘normal’ game as social distancing will still be in place, together with a host of other measures.

However, it is important to note that these are all designed to protect you and keep you safe so please keep an eye on the new Spectator Behaviour Code coming out soon.

If we needed a reminder that Covid 19 is still very much a threat we got it this week with the postponement of the Halifax v Sheffield game due to some positive cases and close contacts in the Eagles camp meaning they have to self isolate.

The club continues to operate within its bio secure bubble and hopefully we can all remain vigilant.

Fingers crossed for Monday.