Tony Smith explains why Hull FC lost to Wigan Warriors

Last night Hull FC came up short against Wigan Warriors in a great game that required golden point to separate the two teams.

Hull FC led 6-4 at the break after a try from Adam Swift cancelled out a try from Liam Marshall.

They even stormed 12-4 ahead with a score from Brad Dwyer but tries from Jake Wardle and Toby King levelled matters.

In golden point, a drop goal from Harry Smith won the game for the Warriors.

Speaking after the game on the club’s website, Tony Smith explained what went wrong:

“I’m proud of my players and the effort they put in. I don’t think we deserved to win it, and I don’t think we deserved to lose it.

“I don’t think we were good enough in some areas, which probably caused us not to win it, but in some areas, I thought we were fantastic and didn’t deserve to lose it. That’s how it is now.

“It was a very hard-fought game between two teams. Was it the prettiest game of rugby league that I’ve seen? It’s probably on the other end of the scale.

“We’re disappointed with the result because we fought hard. We fought really hard in that battle, but we can’t be too hard on ourselves because of the effort we put in for one another. It came down to one or two little things at the end of the game.

“I thought we did a whole lot of things well. The spirit within our camp, watching them defend their try line time after time after time. When we thought they were going to go through and score, they were making last-ditch efforts while it was peeing it down all game to stop tries and come up with answers.

“We’re pretty good at that now. We’re resilient. We’ve gone through some tough times this year. We’re disappointed not to have gotten two points, but we’ll be back in there fighting again next week, I can guarantee it.”

Smith also highlighted how the Black and Whites lost two crucial players:

“We lost Danny Houghton, who has been terrific for us, with a head injury early on. He’s fine now, ready and raring to go, but we’re not allowed to do that nowadays.

“Taylor tightened up in the hamstring and may have a little tear in it. We had to take him off. Down two seasoned campaigners with some old and wise heads that may have done us some good at the back end of the game, however, it wasn’t to be.

“That’s the battle and the challenge of rugby league sometimes. I thought my guys really stood up to that challenge and really gave every bit of energy to the cause.”