Lee Radford takes great pride in Hull FC's derby win over champions Leeds Rhinos

They went 14-0 ahead early in the second period only for the visitors to hit back and take an 18-14 lead with three quickfire tries. Carlos Tumiave then levelled things and Marc Sneyd stepped up with a 75th-minute winning drop-goal.

“It’s not relief, I’m just really pleased and really proud,” said Radford. “You can’t ever do it easy against them. I wish you could as if so I’d be doing it every week. But I always thought we’d hit back. As soon as Ben (Thaler) took his whistle out of his mouth I was pretty confident we could get down there and cause some problems.

“From 55 minutes to 65 I think we conceded four or five penalties. That makes it unbelievable hard to win a game of rugby league.”

Sneyd got the crucial score, but missed three from four conversion attempts.

Radford said: “He could have made it easier for himself. I think he had my boots on in that game. But it was really pleasing.”

Leeds also lost by a drop-goal to Wigan a week earlier, but coach Brian McDermott felt Hull were good value.

He said: “Hull played really well, they were better than us and ran stronger. They defended well and were good for the win.”

But he insisted games are being marred by too many penalties. We play a different game for the first two thirds of Super League than we do for the final third,” he said.

“I’m presuming the memo comes saying we want a more free-flowing game. Challenge Cup finals don’t have as many penalties in them. Semis and play-offs don’t have as many. The argument is players have cleaned their act up. No they haven’t.”