Hull FC staff '˜thrown out' of dressing room by players after '˜embarrassing capitulation' at Widnes

Radford apologised to his club’s fans following what he described as a capitulation by his players, who asked the coaching staff to leave them to themselves immediately after the game.

“Words don’t put it into words if I’m being honest,” Radford said in the post-match press conference. “We simply capitulated and it’s my responsibility as a coach.

“I can only apologise to our supporters who came all this way and sang all the way through. It’s also my job to try fix it up and that’s what I’ll try to do.

“As a rugby player you’re told to compete and that stopped being a competition after 20 minutes.

“It’s the most difficult defeat to take for sure (during his tenure). To have no fightback was embarrassing and the staff have just been kicked out of the changing room by the players.

“I’ve no idea why they asked us to leave, they just asked us to – it’s never happened in my career before.”

There was little hint of the embarrassment to come when Hull took an early lead with Frank Pritchard’s first try for the club but, after having three further tries disallowed by the video referee, they collapsed completely, conceding 46 points without reply to suffer a third straight defeat.

Radford said: “There’s never a good time in the season to witness that kind of defeat. We had a couple of opportunities the same as last week but we didn’t take them and we certainly didn’t defend them.

“It’s my job to fix it up and we’ve got a tough week ahead. We’ll review the game the morning after like we always do, but we’ve got to get this right.”

Wingers Stefan Marsh and Corey Thompson scored five tries between them as a Kevin Brown inspired Vikings put their visitors to the sword.

Radford added: “They were like the (Harlem) Globetrotters. I thought Kevin Brown was the best player on the pitch.”

Betts criticised the remarkable events in his opponents’ dressing room.

“That would never happen here,” Betts said. “It’s wrong.

“If I was Lee, then I wouldn’t be happy, I’d stand there and I’d want to know why they wanted to do that.

“There’s no place to hide. If they can’t say it in front of you then they shouldn’t say it.

“And if you can’t take them saying it in front of you, then you’re not the right person for the job.

“I think Lee is the right person for the job. He’s a decent bloke who works hard. He’s the leader of that group, he can’t leave that room.”

Betts led the tributes to Brown after revealing that his scaptain had been on a drip 24 hours beforehand after suffering from flu.

“He was on a drip yesterday because he was ill,” Betts said. “He was massively dehydrated and his blood count was down. We had to get him hydrated to play.

“He’s the leader of this group and he was fantastic for us. I say it every week. He’s never under-performed since he’s been here. He makes decisions on the hoof that only a good player can make.”

Betts admits he was taken aback by the size of his side’s fifth victory in six matches which enables them to consolidate their early lead.

“I wasn’t expecting to score that many points,” he said. “We rode our luck early.

“The players were excited by the team Hull put out. They were excited by the challenge and they rose to it.”