Brett Hodgson has hailed his side’s effort after yesterday’s nail-biting Hull Derby victory over Hull Kingston Rovers at the MKM Stadium.
The Black & Whites edged out the Robins with a 23-22 win to claim the bragging rights in one of the most memorable and entertaining clashes between the sides of the Betfred Super League era.
After scores from Adam Swift, Carlos Tuimavave, and a brace from Bureta Faraimo, it was the boot of Marc Sneyd that proved pivotal with his drop-goal separating the sides; it was Jordan Lane though, who secured victory for Hull with an incredible charge-down on a drop-goal attempt from Rovers in the final minute of the game.
Speaking after the match, Hodgson said: “It certainly lived up to the billing – you could sense everywhere around the city that something was brewing. The atmosphere was outstanding and the game certainly matched that. I’m so pleased that our supporters can go home with the victory.
“They’re bouncing right now. I learnt pretty quickly that it’s the game in the season that all these boys want to win.
“We’ve worked really hard on our attack, and worked hard on creating those opportunities, so it’s pleasing to finally see it pay off today.
“I felt we deserved the win. We had three harsh calls go against us on the no-tries, but we fought though that adversity and had a couple of injuries too; we still came up with the result and Jordan Lane came up with the big play at the end.
“We’ve been working hard, and today that finally came to fruition and its a bit of a reward for the effort we’ve shown. We want to use this win as a catalyst now.”
Hodgson praised FC’s individual star performers, including Jake Connor and Jamie Shaul who both returned from injury to put in sensational efforts.
“Jake was brilliant; having been out for a number of weeks, we’ve really missed him. But his composure in certain parts of the game was unbelievable. He helped Josh Reynolds and Marc Snyed play well too in giving them some quality ball.
He added: “We had to manoeuvre a couple of positions when Josh came off, and I think Shaully did really well when he came on. It’s important after a long injury you come through your first game, and he’s done that.”
Hodgson also heaped praised on captain Marc Sneyd, who secured the winning drop-goal.
“He controlled the game very well – his kicking game was the best it has been for a while. He showed some unreal composure, and he showed that with his field-goal too from 35 metres out, and I think he really revelled in captaining the side for the first time in a derby today.”
On the injury front, Hodgson confirmed that both Josh Reynolds and Joe Cator picked up potentially serious knocks, but both players will be assessed in the coming days before revealing the timescale that both players are expected to be on the sidelines.
“Josh Reynolds looks like he’s picked up a medial injury which we’ll have to assess tomorrow as we’re unsure on the severity of it.
“Unfortunately, it looks like Joe Cator has done his Achilles. He’s very upset right now, but we’ll have to get that scanned to confirm. We’ll support him the best we can over his period out.”
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