Hull FC players not living up to their reputations, blasts Andy Last

The Black and Whites lost 28-22 against Salford Red Devils on Thursday with a series of glaring mistakes seeing hopes of a much-needed win disappear.

It was another frustrating night for an expensively-assembled squad which had promised so much before the season began.

But Last fired: “I’m fed up hearing about how good we are on paper. On paper is irrelevant and, with all due respect, a good player consistently performs week in, week out.

“So, how some of these players have got this reputation for being good when they don’t deliver performances every week is beyond me. Gareth Ellis has consistently done it for 400 games, and Danny Houghton, over 300 games. Some of these guys we hear ‘potential, potential’. But you have to fulfil it and you do that by turning up every single week and performing to eight or nine out of 10. That’s when you say somebody is a good player. We need to get more of these fulfilling this so-called potential week in, week out.”

This latest defeat means Hull have a win percentage of just 41.67 and, with only eight games remaining, including Thursday’s trip to Castleford Tigers, Last says it will “take something special” to reach the top-four.

After watching his side meekly concede some tries he lamented their “soft underbelly tryline ‘d’ rearing its ugly head again” although he was disappointed with Salford full-back Dan Sarginson, who was sin-binned for a crude high tackle on Jamie Shaul.

He said: “It was an absolute shocker. Jamie’s already had a couple of HIAs and needed another but I was surprised Sarginson played as I thought he smoked someone last week as well.

“But our last tackle plays in the second half weren’t where they needed to be.”

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Thank you

James Mitchinson