The two home games have been very different: Rotherham are clearly very well coached, with great cohesion and a physicality that the Mowden players couldn't match.

Against Rosslyn Park, it was obvious from before kickoff that Mowden would struggle for any sort of fluency because of the players available. The back line was without most of its starters and there would be no scenario before the season that you would've wanted Shaun McCartney to return and play outside of Junior Newton, making his first start for the club, and two centres who had probably never played together before.

Equally, I don't think anyone would consider (the nearly 44-year-old) Talite Vaioleti and (new signing) Louis PeaHuckleberry to be our best second row partnership, so I think it was to the players’ credit, particularly Joe Craggs, that the line out functioned so well, and the scrum was generally solid.

However, the cohesion that Rotherham showed was missing from Mowden’s play against Rosslyn Park and there was (understandably) a distinct lack of attacking threat, with no obvious planned attacking moves, few moments when the ball carrier had offloading options from support runners, and the general sense of predictability was clear from early in the game.

I'm realistic because I know we have a squad of part-time players, one that is currently ravaged by injury, and coaches who work full-time and give a lot of time and effort to this Club, and I know we don't have a deep squad of players who are experienced at this level, playing with teammates they know well. As has been said, the loss of Callum Pascoe is huge because he was such an integral part of organising our attack and could be relied on as an accurate placekicker. Harry Yates, as a hard running centre who always ran good, threatening, lines is also a miss. Both are now in the Championship. I always I thought the first month would be difficult while the new signings familiarised themselves with their new teammates and returning players finished rehabbing their injuries.

Also, I'm pretty sure Lee Dickson is no longer with DMP because it was https://www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk/lee-dickson-returns-to-newcastle-falcons/" rel="nofollow - announced last month that he was rejoining the Falcons, coaching their scrum halves once a week on top of his full-time job at Barnard Castle; he isn't listed on the DMP website with the other coaches. Another huge loss we could ill afford.

Although I’m hopeful that, as players return injury and others grow in experience and composure, narrow losses turn into narrow wins, it might be that this is the season our 10-year stay in National 1 comes to an end and we have to go down to 2N for a year or two. If it is, it will be sad, but the rugby will be good to watch and the travelling will be much easier for players, coaches, and supporters.