Hull FC kicking game horrible in quarter-final defeat, says Lee Radford

Hull FC coach Lee Radford said his side’s kicking game played a big factor in why they were knocked out of the Challenge Cup by St Helens.

The Black and Whites lost 25-22 to Saints in a pulsating Challenge Cup quarter-final at the Totally Wicked Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Hull FC were without usual kicker Marc Sneyd and Radford admitted that his side missed their half-back today.

He said: “I’m as disappointed as I have been for a while.

“We literally had nothing left at the end of the game and sometimes that is all you can ask for as a coach. The players looked after one another, they kept showing up time and time again.

“I was really pleased with them at half time. I thought we scrambled unbelievably well. Our kicking game had a massive effect on the game.

“Our kicking was horrible so for all you Marc Sneyd knockers out there who are sat on their armchair doing radio shows, eat your words as much as you possibly can because he puts the ball where we needed to put the ball. We haven’t kicked as bad as that for a long, long time.”

Danny Houghton, Danny Washbrook and Masi Matongo were all sent to the sin bin for Hull FC for tackling related incidents but Radford admitted that they will try to improve their discipline on dissent.

He added: “I can’t have any influence of that because I would get myself a fine.

“I can’t have an influence on that on gameday and I can’t have an influence on it afterwards.

“There were possibly three penalties for backchat, so I can have an influence on that but I can’t have an influence on the other decisions. We will control the ones we can in the future but we have just got to cop the other ones.”

Radford revealed that Dean Hadley rolled his ankle, while Danny Houghton will miss Friday’s game against Salford Red Devils after failing a concussion assessment.