Best is yet to come from Hull insists Radford

The Airlie Birds head over to AJ Bell Stadium tonight to face opponents who have gone from the Million Pound Game and relegation fears to second place in the Super League table inside barely nine months.

Indeed, Salford strung together a seven-match winning run before losing against Wakefield Trinity last Sunday, something they will look to quickly atone for when the Challenge Cup holders arrive this evening.

However, for all the Red Devils have impressed, Radford feels there is still plenty more to come from his own side who will reduce the gap between the teams to just one point with a victory of their own.

“We have a very tough match ahead of us and the 2017 season to date has, rightly so, been about Salford and Castleford,” he said, their West Yorkshire rivals being clear at the top.

“They are where they are for a reason. But we have played Salford twice, once in pre-season and another time just before the Easter period. The performance at home was not good enough.

“It’s safe to say they haven’t seen the best of us this season.

“That’s a focus from us and hopefully what we want to try achieve Friday.

“I wouldn’t call it revenge but they haven’t seen our potential.”

When they met in early April at KCOM Stadium, few people expected the 54-18 destruction that materialised, a sobering result for Radford’s side but illustrating the sort of damage Salford have inflicted on others this term.

Asked what the difference is this year compared to last, he said: “They have a lot of grafters doing their jobs.

“They are resilient in doing their jobs but have a great spine as well which has played together a lot and are doing a fantastic job.

“They are executing at a very high rate in enemy territory and playing very similar to how they played last year with one or two things different.

“Michael Dobson is fit and playing every week but he wasn’t in 2016. They have another option in Todd Carney who can jump in the pivots off the bench.

“Robert Lui has been fit as well. He missed an awful lot last year. A little bit like Albert (Kelly) for us, he played a lot of games busted.

“He’s a tough hombre. One minute he’s rolling around on the floor holding a limb then scoring an 80m try.

“That’s definitely a key component to their improvement while someone like Ben Murdoch-Masila is one of those X-factor players.”

Whether sides like Salford and Wakefield Trinity, another surprise package in fourth, can last the pace is intriguing and, as Radford suggests, the league ladder could alter plenty yet.

“Injuries have played a big part in where teams are in the league,” he added, yet to see many of his own first-choice players feature regularly together notwithstanding the return of Mahe Fonua, Liam Watts and Josh Griffin tonight.

“If you look at Wigan, Huddersfield and Catalans, they’ve all had their fair share.

“The competition has been formed by injuries a little but the tightness of the league is pleasing to see I think.

“With us, I always had my best side in my head when everyone is fit and playing well.

“We haven’t had that opportunity to play them this year and it will be great to see some combinations grow as more players take the field on a consistent basis.

“I don’t think any of our partnerships have truly got going.

“Our spine hasn’t spent enough time on the park together. Our nine hasn’t been there for big parts of the season, our pack has been jigged about this year and our outside backs have been very much the same.

“At some point we will get some consistency in selection and when that happens I’m really confident in what we can do.”

Having beaten Wigan Warriors last week to earn their first win in four attempts, FC are looking to advance now.

It will be an emotional night, though, following the sad passing of legendary former coach Arthur Bunting at the age of 80 on Wednesday.

“The club will pay their respects in so many ways over the next weeks and months but it’d be great to get a win for Arthur,” admitted Radford.

“For me, what stood out having spoken to him - just in general, not a great deal about rugby - was he was just a gentleman.

“You get some ex-players who say you should do this and and say ‘we didn’t do that in my day’.

“But he wasn’t like that,” he added. “He was always very gracious about the club and very complimentary.”