Leigh Leopards v Hull FC: Tony Smith challenges team to repeat season-best performance

The Black and Whites turned the Super League table on its head to defeat the high-flying Warrington Wolves thanks to a scintillating second-half display.

Smith knows his team will need to be every bit as good against a Leigh side fresh from a seventh straight victory.

"Last week probably was our best overall performance, in terms of both attack and defence, and just the way we went about the match," said Smith.

"We weren’t faultless and we’ve still got a lot of areas to strive for improvement.

"We’re getting the right balance more often now. We still make a few mistakes, some of which are from our opponent and some of which are from us pushing it a little bit, but being able to defend when you do make mistakes is the key to it.

"It's about concentration and our desperation to keep our opponents out. We found enough of that last week and hopefully we can go start again now and keep that same sort of desperation in the next game.

"We’re coming up against a good team. They beat Warrington recently and are capable of beating any team in the competition.

"It’s going to take a lot of concentration and execution as well. We’re going to have to do our stuff really well in order to stop them."

Hull withstood incessant pressure before half-time in Newcastle and ultimately broke Warrington's spirit.

Smith wants to see the same kind of defensive resolve at Leigh Sports Village to put doubt in the minds of the fourth-placed Leopards.

"In being able to defend your own tryline, sometimes that energy can work in reverse," Smith added.

"The confidence comes over to the defensive team for keeping their opponents out and sometimes the pressure goes over to the attacking team if they’re not able to break the opposition down.

"We’ve had our fair share of that against us this year. Our attack hasn’t been good enough at times in the opposition 20 and it becomes demoralising if you don’t convert some of that pressure into points.

"We’ll need to be good at that again this week – both at turning pressure into points and also at keeping our opponents out for periods of time. They’ve got some great attacking plays and some dangerous players. It’s a big challenge for us."

The Black and Whites are close to full strength for tomorrow's clash after welcoming back Carlos Tuimavave and Davy Litten.

Hull will, however, be without powerhouse prop Chris Satae as he nurses a hamstring issue.

"Chris is precautionary," said Smith.

"He has run today (Thursday) but he's not quite at the speed at which we would need him to play.

"We don't want him to try and test that out at the moment. It's more ticking him over to get him ready for next week.

"It would be a crazy risk to take on him and we're not prepared to do that."