“We’re dealing with a lot” – Tony Smith explains defeat to Warrington Wolves

Hull FC are fighting with Leeds Rhinos, Warrington Wolves, Hull KR and Salford Red Devils for a spot in the Super League play-offs.

However, their hopes of making the top six were dramatically damaged yesterday.

Not only did they lose to Warrington leaving them four points adrift of the top six but they lost their number six in the shape of Jake Trueman to a suspected ruptured achilles.

It was a disappointing day for Hull who led early after a brilliant length of the field effort from Adam Swift but tries from George Williams, Matt Dufty and Matty Ashton gave Warrington a crucial win.

After the match, Tony Smith addressed what went wrong when speaking to BBC Radio Humberside:

“Not the result and not the performance, I thought it was a sloppy game again from us. I thought it was a sloppy game in the first half in particular.

“I thought with some adjustments at half time and was hopeful that we’d go out there and tighten up a bit in some areas and yeah, it didn’t quite flow for us in that respect today.

“Whether there was some hangover from our defeat last week, I’m not sure, maybe it’s a combination of that.

“We’re missing some big hardware there today too, you know, some big boys and some of them had to do some extra time out on the park. So, yeah, maybe it’s just caught up with us a little bit there.

“I’m gonna say Warrington were a bit better than us. They weren’t at their very best as well, which is a little bit of a disappointment for us. I’m not trying to take anything away. They definitely deserve to win this game, but I just don’t think either team performed anywhere near what I’ve seen them or think both of them capable of.

“Backing up in Super League is the big test and that’s the big teams do or are capable of. We’re not handling that as well as we need to. But I’m also going to say on top of that in some of those particularly slippery and wet conditions from last week, not only energy but you get pumped and you get knocked.”

He also explained that Hull are carrying a lot at the moment:

“We’re carrying a lot at the moment. There’s some of my boys that are strapping themselves up to get out there and overcoming some issues through the week and not training and not being able to train at certain stages.

“Our performance, to be honest, is just not good. They’re not good at the moment. Last week I didn’t think our performance was good but it was gutsy. I saw some improvement in us in the second half.

“It wasn’t lack of spirit, I don’t think. It was just lack of execution, some sloppy play, some sloppy passing as well as sloppy tackling. You do that for too long or for too many periods of a game, you’re going to come out second best and we certainly did.”