Hull FC boss Lee Radford glad to see Airlie Birds blossom on the road

Radford’s side responded well to last week’s defeat to St Helens, Josh Griffin scoring a brace and Masi Matongo getting his first ever senior try in a much-needed 39-20 away victory at the Halton Stadium on Thursday night.

Hull won the derby at KCOM Craven Park on Good Friday but had lost their other five away games ahead of the trip to Widnes.

“I’m really pleased to come away with the result, that’s what we needed,” said Radford.

“We were a bit guilty of rushing the process in the first half but there was a period where we got into the flow of things and put points on the board.

“It’s a tough part of the year and we’re over the worst of it.

“Josh Griffin was really strong for us carrying an injury. The metres he’s making after contact is one of his real strengths.

“The ease which they scored their first try was disappointing but it was never going to be easy with the players we’ve got missing.

“We got some fluency in attack which it’s important to keep doing.

“It was our first win outside of Hull which is important for us.”

Widnes coach Denis Betts bemoaned an injury crisis that forced him to use players in unfamiliar positions.

“At 27-20 we missed a couple of kicks and we just had no bodies left again,” he said.

“We’ve got people playing out of position all over the place. We started the game with no centres, and the lad who filled in at centre who was a back-rower snapped his biceps in the first 10 minutes.

“Joe Mellor was brave tonight. He shouldn’t have really played but we didn’t have a lot of other places to go with our halves.

“It’s difficult. You can be disappointed with losing games but you know lads are putting their hearts and souls into this.”