Tony Smith left bewildered as Hull FC are blown away on home soil again, this time by Leigh Leopards

Two weeks after being thrashed by Salford Red Devils on their home patch, Hull again suffered, this time at the hands of newly promoted Leigh Leopards.

Leigh raced into a 16-point lead and held their nerve in the second half to repel a Hull comeback to claim a vital win.

For Hull it was another disappointing performance at home and stark contrast to their valiant effort in defeat last week to Saints, as they fell to their fourth-straight defeat.

“It’s disappointing. It took us way too long to build anything in the game. We’ve got to stop allowing opponents to hurt us before we do something about it,” said Smith

“It’s consistency, that’s the big challenge, but we have to get out of this habit of starting slow and not adjusting to what our opponents are doing.

“We knew what they (Leigh) would try and do to us but for us to succumb to what they wanted to do was frustrating. Today reflects how our season has been, starting slow and coming home to give ourselves a chance.”

Smith was particularly critical of his side’s discipline; they lost Ligi Sao to two separate sin binnings during the match.

“We lost the penalty count 11-5 and two sin binning at home, which tells me our discipline is appalling. That is self-inflicted and us hurting ourselves and we simply need to be better than that,” he said. “I have to get tougher, get the players tougher and get tougher as a club.”

Kai O’Donnell raced onto a flat Lam pass to score a simple try before the half-back orchestrated a quick-fire double to Charnley to shell-shock the hosts.

Brad Dwyer split the visiting defence and a loose ball found its way to Davy Litten, who raced over for his first try in Super League. Reynolds did add a penalty 10 minutes into the second half before Charnley completed his hat-trick.

Hull set up a nervy finish with tries from Jake Clifford and Liam Sutcliffe, but Reynolds punished an offside with a penalty.