Tony Smith explained his side failed to execute what they practiced on the training field in Thursday’s defeat to Huddersfield Giants at the John Smith’s Stadium.
The Black & Whites suffered a disappointing 19-12 loss in West Yorkshire, denting their play-off hopes with seven games of the regular season remaining.
In a cagey affair that saw the sides head in level at the break, a try in the final quarter of the contest from Giants forward Chris McQueen secured the points for Ian Watson’s side.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Smith said: “Regardless of where we sit and what’s left, it hurts; it’s a game of rugby league, and you want to perform well. We didn’t perform well.
“The disappointing thing for us was that we didn’t play like we practised, in terms of tactics. Everybody is terrific in practise, but we looked all over the place there, not playing to any structure, and that’s not us. Our last plays and the way we finished our sets weren’t good enough.
“We don’t mind a bit of that (off the cuff), and we don’t mind it when we’re doing it for a reason, but we had some plans there that we didn’t fulfil. When you don’t fulfil them, it can cost you.
“It’s disappointing. We need to go and fix that up before the next game, regardless of how many games we’ve got left; we need to fix that up so we go and play properly.”
Smith continued: “We’ll go and review it, but there were some aspects of our game that were good. Some of the push that we had at times was good, the offloads, and we made some decent choices at times.
“In terms of our set-up plays, getting to points, and asking some questions of Huddersfield in some areas that we felt needed to be asked, we didn’t do.
“We’re always fair in the way we review; we put our hands up, and we admit when we don’t do things well. We’ll go and assess it. There was some stuff there that we’ll find that was good, some excellence from individuals at different stages.
“We don’t throw the baby out with the bath water when we do our reviews, but we also need to be realistic about how we’re performing. The last couple of weeks, I know we got the wins, but we’ve probably been building for this one rather than building the other way.
“We need to have a good, swift kick up the backside from this one and get ready for the next one.”
Smith provided an injury update on Cam Scott and Liam Sutcliffe who both left the field with issues.
“Cam is going to be okay – he’s cramped up, and we gave him all the remedies, the pickled juice, and everything that usually gets them right again, but he kept cramping up.
“He got to the point where he just couldn’t run. It wasn’t a case of lay him down and stretch him out, and get back to it – it was quite severe.
“Liam is a little bit more serious. He’s had a compound fracture to one of his fingers on his right hand. The good news is he’ll go to the hospital and get it sorted. We don’t think it’s too far away from being put back into place. It’s been strapped up.
“The doctor did a good job. It’s nasty-looking, but the doctor also tells me that you can sometimes be alright next week. We’ll see. Fingers crossed for him.”
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