Radford plays down Hull’s victory

Hull FC boss Lee Radford refused to get carried away after seeing his team overcome Liam Watts’ dismissal to defeat Castleford 26-24 on Sunday.

Watts left Luke Gale in a heap midway through the first-half with Hull 18-0 ahead, but Radford’s side dug deep to secure an important victory.

“We’re not making a big deal out of this win – we’ve been good, not great, but the time to be great is at the end of the season, like Wigan showed last season,” said Radford.

“We’re not far away at all and when the big fixtures come we need to be ready. I’m really pleased with this win. Prior to the game I asked for a performance that was worthy of us.

“Until Liam’s sending off we were well on top. I saw that in a different performance after we went down to 12 men, which was an unbelievable effort.

“I could sense confidence at half-time and we came up with try savers – and that builds more confidence.

“There was a period where they got a lift from Liam going off and we conceded some points. But the willingness to turn up for each other was pleasing.

“And I asked for the fans to play their part and they picked us up several times.”