AT the start against Widnes Vikings on Thursday, Wire looked full of energy and enthusiasm.

They took the lead when the bounce of a high kick fell perfectly for Westwood who had an unopposed run under the posts.

If the flare thrown from the crowd represented the enthusiasm then the bucket and sand that went over it was the collective shocker the team had both technically and tactically.

Sometimes defeats are best forgotten, but this one feels like one of those moments in a season when something has to be learned from a third consecutive defeat.

It would seem the players share that belief, the huddle together at the end of the game definitely had the look of ‘we need to get this sorted’ about it.

I will maintain that generally at least the spirit and effort seem to be intact. They stayed together when conceding tries, not blaming each other, and throughout what felt to me like the longest second half ever, they kept going right till the end and up until the last few minutes looked to have some belief that they might pull out a miracle victory.

It’s also worth pointing out that in each of the last two seasons they’ve had a similar run of results around this stage of the season and both times turned it round to be genuine title contenders come the end of the season.

Having pointed out those positives the glaring problems both with and without the ball can’t be ignored.

After being defensively so sound against Leeds they have at times looked nothing short of shambolic. Against Widnes there were moments when the defence was sliding, but it appeared to be sliding the wrong way, leading to the sort of overlaps and space for wingers you’d expect to see in a one sided kids match.

Maybe the plan is to be making it really difficult for teams to beat us down the middle, with the possible negative side effect of that being that it leaves spaces on the outside, as if Wire are saying ‘you can beat us out wide if you’re good enough but we’re not letting you down the middle’, but Super League teams seem to be more than good enough to do that.

The constant changing of the team from one match to the next obviously makes the cohesion that is so important for good defending more difficult than you would like it to be.

With the ball it wouldn’t be accurate to describe Wire as a rudderless ship, because that would imply they are at least all on the same boat. Instead a better analogy would be a group of rudderless speed boats with nobody at the controls.

When exiting their own half they still look to be as good as anyone at gaining ground and getting to the halfway line. It’s when gaining ground needs to be turned into scoring points that they are struggling so much at the moment.

From watching on as a humble fan it would appear there is no plan for a complete set and if there is there are plenty of the players that aren’t aware of it.

Instead they seem to be playing one play at a time and seeing if they can score off each one.

Obviously at times we’ve seen them play with what I would describe as a ‘chaotic’ style where everybody is pushing up with the ball carrier, the offloads come thick and fast and support play and evasive running do the rest to at times rack up the points in devastating fashion.

At the moment though they are not even committing collectively to that, when one or two look like they’re going for that the others don’t seem to be expecting it.

To play successfully with that style takes great confidence in both your attack and defence and at the moment that’s not there anyway.

Somebody needs to take control of the attack when they get near the opponents line, not worrying about making the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ plan, but just giving the team one plan to stick to. Then the all important short kicking game and last tackle options near the line need to be so much better to crank up the pressure on their opponents.

We’ve seen it time and again over the years, the margins in Rugby League are so small and the momentum swings are so big that there really is only a few inches difference between a noose and a halo.

If the spirit and belief is still in tact this squad is capable of ending the long wait, and proving all the current doubters and critics wrong.