Betfred Super League: Hull FC 34-10 Warrington

Hull FC 34-10 Warrington: Match stats

Hull tries: Connor (4), Fonua (11), Shaul (47), Kelly (55, 74)
Hull conversions/penalties: Sneyd (4, 11, 34, 48, 54, 56, 75) 

Warrington tries: Russell (17), Westerman (21)
Warrington conversions/penalties: Patton (23)

Match report

Hull stepped up their title bid in emphatic fashion with a third successive win to go top of the Betfred Super League.

The Black and Whites followed up their victory over previous leaders Castleford by condemning Warrington to a first defeat in six matches with an impressive 34-10 success at the KCOM Stadium.

Centre Jake Connor (pictured) was the hero for Hull, scoring the first try and providing the final passes for two more, while the game management of scrum-half Marc Sneyd ensured the home side were able to build on a slender 14-10 interval lead, with stand-off Albert Kelly scoring two tries to take his tally for the season to 11.

Warrington, who had the chance to climb out of the bottom four for the first time this year, had Kurt Gidley at hooker in the absence of Daryl Clark, who was ruled out with a minor hamstring problem - and that disrupted their attacking flow.

Hull led 20-4 in their first meeting of the season with Warrington before being pegged back for a draw and they once more made a fast start with two tries inside the first 10 minutes.

The visitors looked especially vulnerable under the high ball and Connor drew first blood by catching Sneyd's high kick to score the first try.

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The former Huddersfield man then combined with second rower Sika Manu to get winger Mahe Fonua over for a second and Sneyd added his second conversion to make it 12-0.

Warrington eventually weathered the early storm and pulled a try back on 15 minutes when full-back Stefan Ratchford's cut-out pass got winger Matty Russell over at the corner.

Hull had Manu sin-binned midway through the first half for a 'chicken-wing' tackle on Ryan Atkins and the Wolves immediately took advantage of the extra man, with former Hull loose forward Joe Westerman taking Dec Patton's pass to stride through a gap in the home defence.

Patton's conversion cut the gap to just two points and Hull were forced into some desperate defence, holding Rhys Evans up over the line and halting Tom Lineham just short of it.

They successfully held out their visitors until Manu returned from the bin and extended their lead with a Sneyd penalty seven minutes before the break.

A storming run from Warrington substitute Joe Philbin created the position for second rower Jack Hughes to cross the line early in the second half but the try was disallowed by video referee Ben Thaler for an obstruction in the build-up and the visitors never got another look-in as Sneyd put his stamp on the game.

Sneyd forced two goal-line drop-outs with his pinpoint kicking before full-back Jamie Shaul took Connor's inside pass and stretched out of Atkins' tackle to touch down for a third try.

Sneyd's touchline conversion opened up a 10-point lead and after, extending it with a second penalty on 53 minutes, he came up with a 40-20 kick that set up the position for Kelly to score his 10th try of the season, somehow reaching out of a four-man tackle to plant the ball on the line.

Warrington were pressing for a consolation score when Fonua intercepted to go 80 metres before sending the supporting Kelly over his second try, with Sneyd maintaining his perfect record with his seventh goal.

Match reaction

Hull FC boss Lee Radford praises his replacements: "Because it was the least numbers I've had to select from this season it highlighted how important it was for the young boys to step up and do a job for us and that makes it even more pleasing.

"We identified areas where we had to be really good and I thought we were," Radford said. "I was pleased with the first half but, when we went down to 12, they got a spring in their step. I thought defensively, we were very tidy.

On Sika Manu's yellow card which could rule him out of Test match duty for Tonga: "He flies out Monday and the disciplinary is on Tuesday so maybe it's going to be the quickest landing and return flight you've ever seen. 

"I don't know how we're going to get around it. He's done his ankle as well, so we'll have to monitor that."

: "It was a tough game, it's a tough place to come just after Easter. If you don't get your fair share of the ball, you are going to get beat, and we didn't get our fair share of it.

"After a poor start, I thought we did really well to get back into it by half-time. Our kicking game was very very average tonight. When we have to defend as much as we did, it makes it harder to attack with fluency.

"I thought Fonua was unreal for them, we really struggled to contain him."