'Good on him': Hull FC boss Tony Smith hails match-winner Morgan Smith

The Black and Whites were on the brink of an embarrassing defeat at the MKM Stadium when Hull-born centre Robbie Storey raced over to give London the lead with just four minutes remaining.

But former Featherstone Rovers and Wakefield Trinity half-back Smith bounced out of some tired tackles to score a 79th-minute winner and get Hull out of jail against his old club.

"Good on Morgan for doing that," said Tony Smith, who gave the playmaker his Super League debut at Warrington Wolves.

"He's a goer. He likes to run the ball. I thought he did some good things throughout the game, organising the team at different stages.

"I'm pleased for him. He's been on the cusp of being a regular first-grader in the past and he probably hasn't established himself as much as I think he is capable of.

"Hopefully he's found the right spot with us and he's able to do that more often and guide us to wins.

"When it comes to pressure, sometimes people stand up and Morgan certainly did that."

The Broncos face an immediate return to the Championship following the introduction of a grading system but gave as good as they got in a hard-fought contest.

In the end, they were left to rue some wayward goalkicking from Oli Leyland after matching Hull's five tries.

The 28-24 victory gets Smith's men off the mark in 2024 following defeats in the opening two rounds.

"It was a bit of a heart-stopper and a coach-killer in some respects," said Smith.

"It was a slow old affair and we didn't control it how we would have liked, that's for sure, particularly second half.

"I thought we were pretty decent in the first half. We conceded a try from a kick and that was it; we didn't have any line breaks in the game which is a positive.

"We need to take a leaf out of their book in terms of getting to last plays. At this time of year, some of those kicks are hard to deal with, as we saw.

"We lacked patience and control at different stages, and a bit of self-control and discipline in the second half.

"There were some positives in amongst it. There are aspects of our game we'll be pleased about and aspects that we need to learn quickly from because we made hard work of that."