Poor defence and a lack of composure really cost us last night. We should be closing games down at 28-18 or 34-24. We have some great youn players but unfortunately they are showing their inexperience.

It was a pretty crappy way to lose but I can't say I'm devastated to exit the Cup. We are not good enough to win it and the thought of a lucky draw and a Wembley hiding by Saints or Leeds is not a good one.

never made the journey down for this one,listened on the laptop,which is now somewhere at the bottom of the garden,after going out the cup like that.still ,i`ll be down for the giants game thursday.

I'm surprised you took the 2 to make it 36-30. Yes you extended the lead and in the end earnt yourself a draw and took it to golden point, but had you tapped that penalty and gone on I think you'd have scored and put the game to bed.

As it was, we went down the other end and scored in the dying seconds. Negative tactics which showed how you weren't confident.

We were poor last night though, made some shocking defensive errors which gifted you pretty much all your tries.

Unlucky though and see you at our place in the league.

Same could be said for both teams.

Oh I agree, both teams weren't great. I obviously only paid close attention to Salford and we we're very poor in defence again. Mullaney dropped some shockers and Meli didn't know what he was doing at times (luckily made up for it with his hattrick).

Dave K just read your post on true Salford board, nice touch and well played. Very gratuitous.

It's a matter of opinion and yours is clearly different to mine but at no time have I seen Arundel look 'very good'. He's been just about OK in some matches and that's about it. As I've already said Crooks should spend a reasonable amount of time away from the first team as I don't believe he currently has all the attributes required at SL level. He needs to be stronger and also a bit braver when defending. I don't agree with him all the time but Richardson on the radio had it right when he said that there's a bit too much shirt grabbing and arms length tackling with Crooks and he needs to get his body in a lot closer and his head in the right place to improve his defence.

On the other hand Crooks does look good with ball in hand and that's why it's worth persevering with trying to improve his defence. With ball in hand he's a lot better than Arundel in my view - his balanced running is top class. Not seen much of that when Arundel has played. I understand the point about having 'a run of games' but actually what Hull FC needs is at least one and ideally two decent experienced centres (Shenton/Collis types) who don't need a run of games but can slot in and do the job required at the level required most weeks without being nurtured or protected or worried about loss of confidence etc. Until that happens we will have too many errors and too many weak areas for opposition to exploit - something that clearly happened last night.

Game could have gone either way, Salford had the momentum going into GP, so know they would win, we needed to hang on in the 80, but some poor individual errors cost us, Chase really took advantage of these and as poor as Meil can be, playing against a poor defensive playing on the wing really helped him.

Said two weeks ago, not too much between the teams and I fancied both clubs to win one game.

Exactly my point.

From what I have seen the this season and last, Arundel isn't good enough, poor defence and offers little in attack, Crooks at least has some great attacking skills, just needs to improve his defence.

Crooks has to play IMO, what other options do with have? As I have said in another post, whats the point in playing Horne or Whiting, we might beat the odd the team, but long term its much better playing Crooks.

Crooks starting to look a bit Hall-esque. Time to take a back seat and for him to go back to basics defensively before it's too late.

Your all talking like were some mega side but the facts are as poor as Salford are theyre a better team than us and the league table at the end of the season will show this. We are at best a 7/8th position team (more likely 9-10th) with no chance of winning anything with two rubbish half backs, a couple of stars and a load of also rans. Why you arnt used to this kind of inept performance is beyond me my only surprise is the utter shock you great one with

Wake up, were and under Pearsons ownership nothing will ever change, the guys clueless

Not convinced by this argument. I understand the reasoning behind it however repeated individual errors that keep costing games are a very expensive price to pay. This is exactly the type of situation where a properly organised and funded A team competition would be perfect for Crooks and others to work on their issues and improve whilst gaining confidence. I'm not sure the dual reg situation is as good as that but if that's what's required then so be it.

Horne and Whiting are two of Hull's best players - not world beaters but experienced pros who perform on average at least at the level required. With fans disappearing from games at a fairly worrying rate and now a minimal cup run financial take the 'what's good for the future' argument has to be balanced against a 'what's good for now' option.

Your problem is that you laugh when we lose.

I thought last night was one of the best games I've seen Hull take part in for a long time. Both sides showed lots of intensity and the speed at which the players tried to gain their feet was great. The speed and accuracy the ball was shifted was as good as I've seen from a Hull side for a long time. Yes Hull did invite pressure with a few mistakes but Salford still had to work for every point.

Anybody who recons Salford are crap based on last night is an idiot their pack really stood up last night and our boys gave as good back, were in previous years the pack would of buckled faced with that intensity.

The kid on the wing Johnson is very exciting going forward thought we could of asked more questions of him in defence though.

overall sad to get beat but more encouraged that a good run of results is not far away given a fare crack with injuries.

Are you an FC fan. All you do is moan moan moan. Your like my mate whos a dobbins fan. No's nothing, complains about the team all time and never has anything good to say. Think your place is in Kc2.

totally agree heard, waiting for some of the other so called fc supporters to come on after filling there socks last night

Not what the answer is, but feel it would be too negative to play Whiting at , the game he played there he got stood up twice by a quick and it would happen again.

Crooks was excellent last week, but not a great game last night, but we can't just keep changing the team every week, we need some consistency.

Agree about the fans, but last season we had to watch boring rugby, despite the disappointment of getting beat last night and other games this season, we are getting value for money in rugby (Excluding the Widnes game).

This year should be used to improve structures on the field and get our youngsters ready, IMO we will still win enough games to finish in the top 8, but we need to be ready for next season and make sure we do finish top 8.

fair points. I wouldn't put Whiting at centre either but if he wants to persevere with Miller and Rankin then Horne would be a good centre option as things stand right now. Crooks has been suspect for a lot of games defensively and it's costing us.

A whole new level of wrong



Not ALL of us think we're a "mega side" (I'm not even sure any of us do) but we can see some good in amongst the rubbish, unlike some who only see what they want to see and only post when performances suit their agenda, eh? That's why games like last night are totally frustrating.

And the aggregate score over the 2 games (FC 66, Salford 44 - plus 1 in extra time) would suggest that [uwe[/u are the better team, when it suits us, or when Rangi decides he wants to play. Last week he didn't, this week he did. Yes, our defence was poor last night when last week we started off with something like 6 consecutive sets defended on our line, and then another 7 in the second half. 8 points conceded after all that pressure was incredible. We are unfortunately as inconsistent as last year. Still.



We'll see, but this early in the season, who knows. There are still two trophies available (and I'm realistic enough to realise that the chances are slim, but you never know what could happen).



Did you watch the game last night? Miller and Rankin did well in their [ufirst game together[/u. Hardly fair to call them rubbish based on just 80 minutes together. Or were you meaning Horne and one other?



Who were the stars last night? The only "star" we have is Ellis and he wasn't playing. Having stars and also rans is the way it has to be because of the salary cap. Ryan Bailey has a load of Grand Final winner rings and I'd class him as an also ran. Matty Smith wasn't classed as a decent SH a few years back, but won the double last year and the Lance Todd. Blake Green was a Rovers reject who didn't look crash hot in that shade of red and white, but won the double and the Harry Sunderland. It's all down to coaching, both rugby coaching and attitude coaching. If the team are together and playing well, it doesn't matter who they are. Why doesn't your post mention Radford?



Not entirely sure where you're going with that, but we are all, unfortunately, used to that type of performance. If you've paid any attention over the last 2-3 years you'll know just how capable we are of great play and utter tripe. I haven't noticed anyone shocked by last night.



No we aren't poop. We're consistently inconsistent. I presume you'd rather have Hetherington et al back in charge too based on that. You also appear to have missed that we have Motu Tony back in a managerial role, so suggesting that AP is clueless is irrelevant. He will be acting on advice from others in areas he doesn't know about. What particular area is his lack of knowledge damaging the club?

Good post better then all the seasons over rubbish...we are looking better in attack then we have for quite a few years..so our defence is going to be questioned..also our halfs are gelling along the way so its a bonus..I would rather watch a close game then get nilled or hammered..who knows when at full strength we could be winning those games.

I thought Junior Sau looked like a beast too.

When Rangi fires they look like a decent side and they were looking to offload at every opportunity. I called them a fantasy league team early on in the season and may still be right, but they're moving the right way.

I'm hoping our new signing is a Junior Sau type player.

Senior Sau

So Radford is lamenting the same defensive mistakes as to why we lost. Thing is weren't you all saying the improved defence last season was down to Radford. Radford, out of his depth.

First all, well done to Salford and good luck in the next round. Thought they performed better than last week. Chase was much improved especially in the first half (thought he went a bit quiet in the second half). Really loved their never say die attitude as they refused to go away and got the reward for that attitude.

Very disappointed with our defence this week. To go from such a tenacious performance last week to being so leaky this week is not acceptable. Yeah, Salford were better but they weren't THAT better. Our attack really does seem to have improved and it was good to see that every time we were near their line that we looked like would score.

Thought Thaler made some bemusing decisions and I was scratching my head at times with the penalties we were given/conceded. That's not me saying he cost us the game though. I think our defence and individual errors cost us ultimately.