Radford rues poor defence – again

HULL FC coach Lee Radford says his side can have no complaints with their 26-20 defeat at home to Catalans Dragons on Saturday after an array of poor defending.

The Black and Whites fell to their tenth consecutive defeat at the KCOM Stadium, a club record, and dropped down to eighth in the process.

Ultimately poor defence was the side’s downfall at home to the French.

Despite leading 20-16 in the final ten minutes, two late scores from Brayden Wiliame and Kenny Edwards saw the French steal the victory.

Radford was happy with the way his side attacked at times, but he also touched on why FC’S defence was not good enough.

“It was a copycat of last week at St Helens. You can’t be disappointed with that result when you defend like that,” Radford told the Mail. “When you look at the tries we conceded, the system stuff you have to stand by and the one-on-one tackles you have to make.

“I thought we were okay with the football. We were mad and had two mavericks at half-back. There was no organisation and temperament in terms of patience but that’s what you get with those two blokes (Jake Connor and Hakim Miloudi) at six and seven. You have to almost expect that.

“I had two minutes of ecstasy, something I’ve not had for a while. It was a good two minutes.”

The FC boss added his thoughts on the club’s current situation after extending their own club record of consecutive Super League losses.

“We are eighth. We haven’t won a game in the Super 8s and are not defending well enough to win a game,” Radford added. “We are coming up against a team who hasn’t won a match in the Super 8s. Nothing has changed from last week.”