LEE DOUGLAS: We need to improve to go on cup run

Every time we have been pushed close this season, we have been found wanting.

We don’t have a lot of decision-makers in the team and people need to start learning from experiences, and that is how you develop.

The road to Twickenham starts Saturday against Consett, and we need to start improving and quickly if we are going to go on a run in the National Cup.

Saturday’s defeat against our rivals Bridlington was disappointing to say the very least.

We controlled the game right from the start until the end when things seem to swing away from us.

The referee had a good game until the last 10 minutes, but things seem to get away from him in the last stages of the game.

The scrum was wheeling like a carousel for the first time in the game and the referee was allowing their loose-head to bore-in, which he was doing a lot of the game.

We just couldn’t relieve the pressure.

When we had chances to we made poor decisions and couldn’t retain possession.

It was quite strange that we played that amount of injury-time too.

The ref kept indicating that it would be the last play of the game, and then we’d somehow have another ‘last play of the game’.

It was quite bizarre really.

While it might sound like sour grapes, I believe the guys can be bitterly disappointed not to win the game after controlling most of it.

If our back-line, which I thought was very average, had been functioning properly the game would have been dead and buried.

The back-line were very flat and didn’t have much penetration and we paid the price for it in the end.

Bridlington are an average side and they are nothing special, but when it comes to a big game like this, they seem to bring something extra to the party.

We brought Paul Taylor off with about 10 minutes to go, which was always the plan.

Paul is one of the lads who can’t train due to work commitments so fitness is always going to be an issue.

Tom Chadwick didn’t do too much wrong when he came on, I just think as a team we need to make better decisions.