ALBERT ROCKS
Kelly helps Hull fire on all cylinders
ANDY LAST believes Hull FC’S Covid nightmare fuelled his players’ fire after Albert Kelly guided the Black and Whites to a morale-boosting win.
The club saw two matches postponed after 12 players and staff tested positive for coronavirus in the wake of their heavy defeat to Salford.
But with Kelly producing a host of telling contributions and young forwards Jordan Johnstone, Joe Cator and Jack Brown standing tall up front, Hull shrugged off a first-half ankle injury to talisman Marc Sneyd to record a fourth win of the season.
Interim coach Last said: “I challenged them to show a response and they did that.
“We had a bit of disruption in the team and when we’ve faced adversity in the past we haven’t come up with the right answers.
“But I thought we did today – it was a really positive response.
“We need to have a bit of a siege mentality and make sure it’s about us and taking care of our own business.
“It wasn’t a complete performance and there’s plenty to work on but I thought the character in the second half was outstanding.
“The situation we found ourselves in wasn’t nice but it fuelled the fire.”
Hull’s victory was built on a flawless opening half-hour that them establish a 28-0 lead.
Kelly plunged over from close range to open the scoring before Sneyd pounced on an error from Jordan Turner on halfway and had enough near saw pace to reach the line. Sneyd then kicked for Josh Griffin to touch down and a superb ball from Kelly saw substitute Brown burst through and over Giants full-back Ash Golding to score.
Even the withdrawal of Sneyd couldn’t stop the one-way traffic as Johnstone’s neat kick was finished by Mahe Fonua.
Huddersfield eventually hit back when Golding touched down before the break and they closed the gap to 16 points when Turner crossed just after the hour mark.
When Fonua was then sin binned after a shuddering hit on Darnell Mcintosh, an unlikely comeback looked possible.
But the 12-man Black and Whites regrouped and closed the game out with a
Griffin penalty and a Jamie Shaul drop goal.
Giants boss Simon Woolford said: “There’s an old saying in rugby league that you can’t win a game in the first 20 minutes but you can lose one, and that was the case today.
“Our defensive effort in the first half hour was poor and we showed no real resilience on our try line.
“Then the next 50 minutes we saw the Giants that we’ve seen all year but we needed to start with that intent and energy.”
Both sides are now on eight points and within two of third-placed Catalans Dragons.
Huddersfield are seventh and with a gsme in hand on Hull in eighth having scored marginally more points than the men from the KCOM Stadium.