Hull FC man Tom Briscoe gives his take on golden point controversy v Leigh Leopards

Tom Briscoe remains confident that the officials made a mistake in not awarding Hull FC a penalty in Thursday night’s clash against Leigh Leopards. With Hull and Leigh playing out a 22-22 draw over 80 minutes at the MKM Stadium, the game went to golden point with both sides doing all they could to claim the two points.

However, there was controversy in the second half of extra time when Briscoe appeared to collect a Lachlan Lam kick-off with his foot on the touchline. Rather than Hull being awarded the penalty, Leigh were instead handed possession with Briscoe adjudged to have taken the ball out of play.

A captain’s challenge was inconclusive and that meant the referee’s call on the field stood, much to the dismay of the home support, who were watching along with the video referee on the big screen.

It was a decision Leigh boss Adrian Lam felt the officials got wrong and Briscoe was certainly of the belief that he caught the ball while his foot was on the line.

“We put everything into that,” he told Sky Sports after the game. “A great performance from both teams.

“What a game that is to go to extra time, golden point and to go all the way through and have the excitement of what that brings but obviously disappointed not a get a few calls and not get the two points.

“I didn’t know how close I was but I had a call from behind saying ‘put your foot out’. I trusted that, put my foot back and I wasn’t sure where I was but I think on review I’m confident it’s on the line but obviously the call went against us.”

The draw, which came after Lam had two drop goal attempts charged down, saw Hull FC pick up their fifth point of the season. That’s just one below the six point total they mustered over the whole of the last campaign with the Black and Whites certainly appearing to be much improved.

“It was a real tough game and they’re the efforts that you want in big games, close games, we need those efforts to charge the drop goal down and it saved us a point in the end,” Briscoe added.

“On the back of last year there’s a lot of confidence within us. We’re getting into tight games and we were two out of three before this one, we got a draw, and I think at the start of the season we’d have took that.

“It’s just building on the confidence throughout the season now, review it game by game and we’ll go from there.”