Tony Smith has reflected on his side’s Good Friday defeat to Hull KR at Craven Park.
The Airlie Birds put in an improved second-half display in East Hull, but the damage was done in the opening forty as Smith’s side found themselves 28-0 down at the break – FC ultimately went down 34-10.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, which you can watch in full by clicking here, Smith said: “We’ve got to hurt more. We’re hurting now, but we’ve got to get that right mindset right from the word go. Some people haven’t done that much before in their careers, so we’re still learning together and learning what it takes to get to that desperate mindset where you’re doing it before you get kicked around.
“We’ve got to get angry and get desperate before we get out there; otherwise, the opposition is going to embarrass us. They were embarrassing us there. We’ve got to fight before we get to that stage and prevent that from happening.
“We have got to face up to it. It’s the reality of where we’re at the moment. Some of our defence isn’t good enough, and when it isn’t good enough, you’re going to get embarrassed. We need to look at it and learn from it, but take that bad taste into next week.”
On FC’s poor start to the game, Smith commented: “It couldn’t have gotten much worse by half-time. It was a fairly solid start. We went toe-to-toe for a few sets, which was encouraging. We looked like we were going to build into the game, but some of our defence just fell way off the cliff.
“That allowed them to run their plays, and they’ve got some very good players that can hurt you with the ball. They did; they hurt us badly. To come in at half-time with that sort of scoreline was pretty demoralising. You could then easily throw in the towel and not go out there and try to fix things up, so on that account, that’s encouraging.
“The 28 points before that to get to that point, to really get desperate—we’ve got to address that. We’ve got to get really desperate with our defence earlier in matches. That’s the only way you can play rugby league. We need to be urgent and desperate not to allow breaks and get the ball.
“We’re not in good form at the moment. We’ve got to make sure we’re working hard for each other and getting desperate to help each other. The second half showed we can do that when we put our minds to it, which is encouraging, but we’ve got to do that from the outset of matches.”
Providing an injury update on members of his squad, Smith added: “Danny Houghton copped a rib injury. He’ll probably be on our injury list now.
“Jack Ashworth has also got a thumb problem. It’s not looking good. He won’t be around for the next little while, I’d suggest. We’ve picked up another couple there.”
On Nick Staveley, who dropped out for the Airlie Birds, he added: “Nick will have a scan on Saturday. It’s a meniscus problem. The doctor said it would either be a two-week clean-up or a six-week clean-up. If it’s a big one, it will be six, or if it’s a small one, it will be two.”
Tony Smith is proudly sponsored by Rowe Freight.
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