Tony Smith has reflected on the Black & Whites golden point defeat to Wigan Warriors on Friday evening.
After the game finished 12-12 at the DW Stadium thanks to a late Jake Wardle try, it was the host who claimed the two points as Harry Smith kicked a drop-goal from forty metres out after a scrappy affair between the sides.
Speaking after the game, Smith said: “I’m proud of my players and the effort they put in. I don’t think we deserved to win it, and I don’t think we deserved to lose it.
“I don’t think we were good enough in some areas, which probably caused us not to win it, but in some areas, I thought we were fantastic and didn’t deserve to lose it. That’s how it is now.
“It was a very hard-fought game between two teams. Was it the prettiest game of rugby league that I’ve seen? It’s probably on the other end of the scale.
“We’re disappointed with the result because we fought hard. We fought really hard in that battle, but we can’t be too hard on ourselves because of the effort we put in for one another. It came down to one or two little things at the end of the game.
“I thought we did a whole lot of things well. The spirit within our camp, watching them defend their try line time after time after time. When we thought they were going to go through and score, they were making last-ditch efforts while it was peeing it down all game to stop tries and come up with answers.
“We’re pretty good at that now. We’re resilient. We’ve gone through some tough times this year. We’re disappointed not to have gotten two points, but we’ll be back in there fighting again next week, I can guarantee it.”
Smith provided an update on several players who left the field during the match, including Danny Houghton who departed with a head injury in the second minute – having failed his head injury assessment, the veteran hooker will be unavailable for next week’s game against Warrington.
“We lost Danny Houghton, who has been terrific for us, with a head injury early on. He’s fine now, ready and raring to go, but we’re not allowed to do that nowadays.
“Taylor tightened up in the hamstring and may have a little tear in it. We had to take him off. Down two seasoned campaigners with some old and wise heads that may have done us some good at the back end of the game, however, it wasn’t to be.
“That’s the battle and the challenge of rugby league sometimes. I thought my guys really stood up to that challenge and really gave every bit of energy to the cause.”
Smith also confirmed that Davy Litten passed his head injury assessment after leaving the field in extra time.
“Davy was fine by the time he got off the field. He’s done his test and passed. He’ll be alright for next week.
“Ligi has a grumbling knee. We lost him in the captain’s run on Thursday.”
Tony Smith is sponsored by Rowe Freight.
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