It was another poor performance at home – in a game Hull FC were fancied to win.
Hull FC were below par against Castleford.
Andy Last has questioned the mentality of his Hull FC players after failing to get up for another home game at the MKM Stadium. The Black and Whites were beaten to the punch early by Castleford Tigers in what turned out to be a dire 18-14 defeat in a season that can’t finish soon enough.
The tone was set early on, with Hull flat in attack and leaking far too many metres in defence, eventually leaving themselves an uphill battle after going 12-0 down. That saw attitudes questioned, with Hull’s Achilles heel coming to the fore again in another inconsistent performance.
Last pulled no punches with the reality, and has challenged his players to carry their words with actions.
“We go one step forward and two steps back,” Last said. “We had 12,000 people in the stadium tonight on the back of not giving them a great deal to shout about. The fact that we can’t get ourselves up to play at home, in front of 12,000 fans – it hurts me that.
“Those people have paid good hard-earned money to come and watch us and we’ve played like that. It’s not good enough. You should embrace coming and playing in front of your fans.
“There was the odd boo here and there but I don’t think that was necessarily towards the team. I think there was a bit of frustration with how the game was and the ref, etc., etc., and they still applauded us off. I’m stunned by how good they are.
“It’s about time that we started delivering on the field for them. We had a good bit of news with DCE (Daly Cherry-Evans) coming in. That’s a statement of the club’s ambition, and it’s something that the fans can get on board with, but my job is to get more out of this group currently. It’s hurting that we played well last week at St Helens and then we go turn up like this.
“That’s been Hull FC’s Achilles’ heel: to go into a game that you should be winning and go deliver like that. That mentality is just not where it needs to be for the players. The messaging is ‘Don’t be inconsistent; be a consistent player and deliver your performance.’ This is what we need to do, but we just failed miserably again.
“The players all said the right things, but it’s okay saying the right things when you go out on the field; actions speak louder than words, and the actions weren’t there. We’ve got to cop it.”