Lewis Martin's four-try blitz earns Hull FC rare home win at expense of crisis club Salford Red Devils
Hull romped to an 80-6 win over patched-up Salford in a demolition job that laid bare the deepening crisis engulfing the Red Devils.
Salford ran in 10 tries on their last visit to the MKM Stadium in a 58-4 triumph 11 months ago, but ongoing financial woes left them relying on a raft of young loanees just to fulfil Sunday’s contest.
Fighting for a play-off spot, Hull were in no mood to be charitable and scored 14 tries, at one point threatening to eclipse their record 88-0 Challenge Cup triumph over Sheffield Eagles in March 2003.
Lewis Martin headlined with four tries, while Zak Hardaker had a dozen conversions, but the biggest cheer of a sunny afternoon went to Brad Dwyer barging over for a consolation with three minutes left.
The Airlie Birds did not look back after Martin opened the scoring inside 80 seconds.
Martin collected the ball on the left and bulldozed through opposite number Sam Hill and the covering Declan Murphy to touch down.
Martin then spotted a yawning gap in Salford’s middle before teeing up fellow wing Harvey Barron to score and Jed Cartwright leapt above two defenders to collect a high ball for a try after 15 minutes.
Hull worked the ball this way and that to score on opposing flanks through Barron and Martin, who with another hat-trick there for the taking unselfishly passed to Davy Litten to score after Cartwright had bagged his second.
Martin bagged his third as he took his season’s try tally season to 26, a new club record in the modern era, before Cade Cust crossed as Hull went to the break 50-0 ahead.
The one-way traffic continued after half-time as more sustained pressure saw Martin go over on the left, while Herman Ese’ese and Amir Bourouh also got on the scoreboard.
Hardaker then set up Litten with a long grubber then Tom Briscoe for his 100th try for Hull.
However, it was Salford who had the final say as Dwyer barrelled over, with Riley Lumb adding the extras, to great applause from both sets of supporters in the 11,242-strong crowd. Cartwright said: “You can only play who’s put in front of you. I think the boys handled it well.”