Hull FC 0 Wigan Warriors 16: Tomkins seals Warriors victory as Hull gain unwanted record

Opposition supporters have long enjoyed ambushing that ditty, altering the words of the opening line slightly to “Old Faithful - you’ll never win at Wembley.”

It is in reference to the very fact that Hull have, indeed, yet to eke out a victory of any sorts at the famous national stadium

After Saturday’s torrid defeat, perhaps the most disappointing of them all, the unwanted record now stands at eight failed attempts with Wigan, incidentally, having also inflicted the first more than half-a-century ago.

Given the woeful manner of this failure, you would understand if traumatised Hull opted to give the Challenge Cup a complete miss altogether next season just to avoid any chance of returning to the scene of such a turgid ordeal and risk having it repeated again.

For all they were not favourites here there had been a growing feeling – especially when rain descended on the capital so heavily – that Peter Gentle’s side had all the requisite apparatus to perhaps see off a Wigan side that had been stuttering along in Super League.

Their opponents did, indeed, continue stuttering on Saturday with none of their usual forward dominance or attacking flair to be seen, thus, only making this reverse all the more frustrating for the jittery Black and Whites.

The last Wembley meeting between these sides in 1985 had been rated arguably the greatest ever Challenge Cup final but this could quite feasibly go down as the worst given the consistent raft of dropped ball and lack of creativity shown by both protagonists.

Here is a little insight; shortly before the hour mark, Hull earn a rare penalty and even rarer attacking position 20m from Wigan’s line only for Joe Westerman to cough up the ball on the first tackle with no one near him.

Or worse still, with six minutes remaining and still somehow only trailing 8-0, Daniel Holdsworth finally forces his side’s first drop-out of the game. And then, inexplicably, drops Pat Richards’s kick.

Right across the team players made uncharacteristic errors with only the irrepressible Richard Whiting emerging with much credit and the excellent young full-back Jamie Shaul who completely justified Gentle’s faith in him, delivering an accomplished display in only his sixth senior game.

How Hull needed the far more experienced Holdsworth, their semi-final hero against Warrington, to show such composure too, especially as they lost captain Gareth Ellis for a large period with a rib injury, but the erring stand-off crucially had no impact.

The 29-year-old’s kicking game was almost non-existent – Wigan’s Matty Smith came up with all the telling moments in that department to rightly win the Lance Todd Trophy – and without his control they were so disorganised.

Fellow Australian half Jacob Miller was also largely ineffectual but he had just turned 21 on Thursday so his poor display could be put down to callowness.

Though Hull’s spirited defence can never be questioned – it was only in the last play of the game that Sam Tomkins wriggled over for Wigan’s second try – some of their ball control, even taking into account the sodden conditions, was just embarrassing.

The fairytale Ben Crooks hoped for turned into an utter nightmare. The 20-try centre had not played for a month due to ankle surgery but Gentle insisted there was no risk playing him here.

In fairness, he did not look unfit but he was clearly out of sorts with his timing and awareness, dropping three balls in the first half alone and putting his side under plenty of undue pressure.

You had to feel for his dad Lee – whose four missed kicks proved so crucial when Hull lost that ‘85 final – as the BBC cameras turned to him helpless in the crowd.

Yet, in spite of all their problems, Hull still had chances to turn this contest on its head. The best came in the 50th minute when, still only 8-0 down, Shaul produced the one moment of true class in an otherwise underwhelming showpiece.

As ever, the former bricklayer was perfectly positioned to neutralise a Smith grubber in the shadow of his own posts. He then set off on a thrilling run, escaping a raft of defenders including Wigan’s captain Sean O’Loughlin to find space down the centre.

His sheer pace then took him clear and he looked destined to score probably the greatest try the stadium had ever seen, even surpassing Martin Offiah’s famed effort for Wigan 19 years earlier.

However, the modern-day Wigan winger Josh Charnley came to the rescue, sneaking up on Shaul from his blindside to make the crucial tackle agonisingly close of the goalline.

The expression on the Hull player’s face said it all as his opponent had also craftily managed to knock the ball free too.

Hull never had another chance like it and so picked up another unwanted Wembley record becoming the first side to fail to score here since Wigan vanquished St Helens 27-0 in 1989.

Ex-Leeds Carnegie centre Iain Thornley opened the scoring for Wigan in the 21st minute capitalised on one of those Crooks blunders and then fending off Tickle.

Richards converted and added two penalties before adding the extras to Tomkins’s late score, Wigan spluttering to a record-extending 19th success.