Our directors kindly arranged for us to travel to London on Saturday and paid for an overnight stay in the capital in preparation for our match with the Skolars on Sunday.

As we've talked about before, taking out a three or four-hour coach journey on game-day has its obvious benefits concerning the preparation of the players, who get a better rest and are mentally more tuned in.

I felt we got a whole lot more from our trip.

We had purposely asked the players to spend a bit more time with each other and enjoy one another's company over the course of the weekend. That they did, and in terms of spirit and bonding it certainly took us up the right path.

We trained at Pontefract Rugby Union ground on Saturday, an excellent venue with good facilities (not to mention being across the road from where I live).

We decided to feed the players there, and Bomber (kitman Steve Harris), Colin Sanctuary, Jason Ramshaw and myself set about feeding them up with chicken and pasta.

Jason was a dab hand on the stove and quickly earned himself the nickname Gordon Ramshaw.

From there it was on to the coach, where we watched the Dewsbury game on the video. Unfortunately there was no commentary, so our resident impressionist Chris Langley took over the mic and did an hilarious 15-minute stint, in various guises - Eddie Waring, Jonathan Davies, Ray French and legendary Aussie Ray Warren all pitched in - and the boys were in stitches.

Jason then followed this up with a slight change to our usual sports quiz. This time we had a music quiz, accompanied with an audio tape. There were some surprise music buffs, with big 'Sully' and 'Langers' being the pacesetters. Chris Smith was also up there although there were some questions marks over the validity of his answers.

Before dinner we watched Widnes surprise Wigan, punctuated by us cheering on the magnificent Kelly Holmes. Even our Aussie duo Aaron and 'Friendy' were behind her, while Yusuf reliably informed us that Uganda had picked up a silver in the twenty-something thousand metres.

On Sunday morning after a great breakfast we had a short video session and team meeting and went over what we wanted to get out of the game.

The lads duly obliged and put in a very good performance, though the feeling from them at the end was a little disappointment in the way the game deteriorated into a scrappy finale.

Our fans made sure there was a good atmosphere at the game, and it was important for us that we made it up the road to spend half an hour with them before the journey home.

Lee Jackson and Craig Farrell murdered a couple of songs on the karaoke and personally it was good to meet and speak to some faces that I hadn't come across before. There was a vibe in the pub of real togetherness and that the fans and players alike were all part of the Knights. It was a good afternoon.

I must admit the songs didn't get much better on the way home. 'Langers' did his now customary slot, and John Smith got some hammer.

All in all, I felt we gained a lot more than two points from our weekend in London.

Congratulations to coach Tony Smith and Leeds Rhinos on the minor premiership in Super League. Whitehaven can take pole position in NL1 if they win at Leigh on Sunday. The Cumbrians are having a tremendous year and have made great progress under Steve McCormack.

I feel it will take a minor miracle for us to take out top spot in NL2 with the fixtures remaining. But we can virtually assure second spot with a win on Saturday and, as Steve Ferres quite rightly puts it, if we don't lose another game, we will go up.

We're in good form and obviously need to be, with the visit of Workington, who in my opinion are the best NL2 side we have played this season. There's plenty still left to play, and it's vital we retain our focus and attitude.

Updated: 10:45 Wednesday, September 01, 2004