Saints ran out 16-10 winners over Hull on Friday night.
Paul Wellens highlighted Hull FC’s ‘attritional’ qualities and ‘exceptional’ outside backs after his St Helens side were made to work hard for a 16-10 victory on Friday night.
The understrength Black and Whites showed plenty of grit throughout the contest, hanging on and making a fist of a match which went right down to the final play.
That battle wasn’t lost on Wellens, who saw his side move to second place in the Super League table – with the Saints boss praising John Cartwright’s outfit and the progress seen by the East Yorkshire club this year.
Speaking post-match, Wellens said: “The way that Hull FC go about their business now, they’re a very attritional type of team and within that, they’ve got a lot of players who can hurt you – Herman Ese’ese through the middle, Aidan Sezer with his running game, Zak Hardaker is rolling back the years, and the young outside backs I think are exceptional for them.
“They’re building something special there and that’s why we go away from tonight really pleased that we’ve beaten a good side in a tough game.”
On the match itself, Wellens continued: “It was extremely tough. We spoke about that in the week because we’ve come off a couple of games where we’ve had some fun, racked up some points and scored some wonderful tries and that’s been great.
“But I really felt we needed a game like tonight with what we’ve got coming up and Hull FC are a really gritty team and it’s very hard to find points against them. They work hard for each other, defend really well, and kick the ball well through Aidan Sezer.
“They make life very difficult, so huge credit to the team because, again, we’ve won another tight game, a game where a few things didn’t go our way and also a game where we’ve probably inflicted too much pressure on ourselves at times. But it’s great to come through a tight contest.
“We had to turn up for each other defensively and our defence has been on point now for a good while. And it needed to be again tonight. I can’t fault the players’ effort to want to keep turning up for each other in that respect.”
Wellens also singled out Saints duo Morgan Knowles and Daryl Clark after influential displays. Knowles scored the first try of the game after a fifty-yard dash, with Clark a danger throughout the game with his darts from dummy half.
“They were the two players I singled out to the lads,” Wellens added. “Playing 80 minutes in the middle during that type of battle is no mean feat.
“I thought Daryl’s impact on the game was excellent. He was running the ball from dummy half and making a lot of metres. And there’s nothing more I can say about Morgan Knowles. He’s exceptional week in, week out, and he delivered again. He very rarely doesn’t.”