Hull FC 0 Widnes 7: It’s ‘crisis’ time at Hull, blasts unhappy Radford

The Black and Whites put in a performance that was littered with handling errors throughout, and boss Radford was in no mood to pull any punches after the game, delivering a damning assessment of his troops following their 7-0 loss at the KC Stadium.

“It is a crisis after that performance. You base your pre-season around not performing like that and turning efforts like that in. The full pre-season too – it was something we spoke about every day,” Radford said.

“You don’t want to turn performances like that in against teams we’re expected to beat at home, especially with the calibre of squad we have.

“I don’t want to be associated with those performances, and it’s not a nice feeling at all. We’ve got a five day turnaround and when we watch the video – and have our first crisis meeting of the season – they’ve got to ask themselves why they put that shift in as individuals.”

The Hull boss claimed some of his side slipped back into ‘old habits’ following the defeat, and questioned whether negative traits are embedded into the club.

“There’s nothing to take out of that game whatsoever,” he added.

“From round one to five you think you’re heading in the right direction, and you think you’re doing the right things.

“You start to think everyone is buying into what you are saying and then you get that.

“The performance we spoke about pre-season that we want to get out of our DNA, they threw that in today. It’s old habits from the same blokes and you wonder if it is ingrained in them. Who knows.

“They’ll just continue to do what they have been doing for seasons.”

Hull: Rankin, Colbon, Arundel, Yeaman, Talanoa, Heremaia, Horne, Watts, Houghton, Ellis, Tuson, Whiting, Westerman. Substitutes: Paleaaesina, Thompson, Crooks, Hadley.

Widnes: Hanbury, Flynn, Dean, Phelps, Ah Van, Brown, Gilmore, Kavanagh, Clarke, Joseph, Galea, Tickle, Gerrard. Substitutes: White, Lloyd, Isa, Johnson.

Referee: B Thaler (RFL).