Hull FC 22 Hull KR 16

The Black and Whites have constantly failed to perform against their cross-city neighbours over recent years and suffered a last-minute defeat to them on the same Etihad Stadium pitch last year.

But they took a leaf out of the Robins’ book today, producing some late heroics to turn around a losing position and regain some local pride, with Chris Green scoring the winning try with just over two minutes to go.

The score left Rovers’ much-maligned full-back Greg Eden red-faced as he failed to deal with Danny Houghton’s speculative kick, leaving Green with a short trundle to the line to secure a first Magic win against KR for Hull.

It generated a finish similar to the one last year when David Hodgson won the game with the last play of the game, although Rovers may well be able to raise a number of issues regarding the outcome.

Green appeared to be offside when Houghton kicked ahead and did not look to get back onside, although video referee Steve Ganson chose to ignore the pictures. Prior to that, Kirk Yeaman’s try which levelled the scores came after a contentious knock-on call against Graeme Horne.

Rovers coach Craig Sandercock has never been afraid to speak his mind regarding refereeing decisions and may well have more complaints after this, with the outcome particularly harsh on his men, although they did squander a 10-point lead with eight minutes remaining.

Tries from Tom Lineham, Yeaman and then Green would wipe that away, though, helping Hull bury the demons of their Good Friday loss to Rovers which prompted such a fierce internal investigation.

Since then Hull have now won eight out of nine and this will no doubt be the sweetest, although they only really performed at the start and end of the match.

They opened the scoring when Richard Whiting spun out of an Eden tackle, but the Rovers man made up for it when he seared clear off a Michael Dobson pass following a Craig Hall intercept to level the scores.

KR captain Dobson was the go-to man and his smart kick through forced Lineham to produce a brilliant catch on the fly to deny a follow-up score, but his centre partner Ben Crooks was not as flexible at the other end when Richard Horne broke off a Liam Watts offload and sent a low pass his way.

It was an unfavourable pass from Horne but on another day could have been finished - much like the effort from Hall at the other end with 30 minutes gone.

Dobson was again the provider, standing up a high kick to the corner. Hall had little hope of taking it ahead of Lineham but somehow did before spinning in the tackle and touching down on the only available spot.

Hull looked short of ideas in response and when they did get close their hands let them down. Before the break Richard Horne shelled possession when going for the line and after it Kirk Yeaman dropped the simplest of passes when he had Tom Briscoe on the overlap.

Yeaman was then stopped short after a burrowing run as Rovers continued to find the answers in defence, before extending their lead with a Dobson penalty after Mark O’Meley overstepped the mark.

With Richard Horne in the dugout injured, Hull were desperately short of numbers and they were growing increasingly low on hope too as Rovers scored a third try with 18 minutes left, Alex Brown finishing well off an Eden pass.

But, just when it had looked like Hull were beaten, Lineham finished well in the corner and when Holdsworth added the extras from the touchline, the gap was down to four points.

Yeaman then bounced over, although replays suggested Graeme Horne had smothered the ball and not knocked on as he was adjudged to have done.

The drama showed no sign of abating as Holdsworth failed with the conversion, but it would matter little as Green’s controversial effort settled things.