They started well opening 10 but then were really soft as Hull got back in it. Can't really properly judged 13 v 11. Second half they struggled and threw chances away. Taia was greedy near the line and it was laughable when the ball was thrown to Grace on a break and he was already stood in touch, schoolboy error for a winger.

At last, a balanced perspective, it was a tough feisty cup game with lots of drama. saints made loads of line breaks but Hull tackled there hearts out, Hull made loads of offloads and kept Saints struggling to cover.

Barba has his worse game of the season because Hull put numbers on him, result could have gone either way but I thought Hull put in too many head tackles and you can't back chat to Thaler these days.

Don't matter how you win as long as you do. Generally a game like that on the way to the final for the eventual winner. Saints could go the way of Cas and play lovely all year and end up with just the shield thingy or win the lot.Who knows? But they and Warry look the standout sides this time around

If we qualify for top 4 id fancy us beating saints in a semi with a stronger side out

Ah repeat offenders. Maybe Radford should have the team working on tackling technique, not kneeing prone players or late shots on half backs

Have we really been overhyped though? We've been great this season, with only a few poor performances, but all good sides have bad days.

We're obviously not ordinary. We're top of the league. Ordinary teams don't finish top of the table.

Embarrassing mate. Just admit you were extremely lucky today, decisions went your way, wasn't a dirty game.

Not true, whenever it's not Saints or wigan or Leeds gets called rotten

We call out referees for not making big decisions...yet when they do, they receive the same criticism! It was a ferocious game which could have gone either way.

We were far from our best, but in the cup, as long as you get the win it doesn't matter. I think it will stand us in good stead that we showed we can see out a close match when the pressure is on. As for Hull, they proved again they can mix it with the best, and when they get their players back, they'll have confidence they can win a play off semi final should they reach one.

As a Saints fan, it's good to see that the bitterness from other fans is back. People making up that we always get the easy draw, when we've drawn one Championship side in 6 years and have had plenty of away ties in that time, and making up that Abdull was sin binned against us earlier this year to fit their agenda.

People always have that bitterness against the best side in the league. Castleford copped it last year and at various times since 2010 so have Wigan, Warrington and Leeds when they were the best side. This time last year, we were nothing, not worthy of comment or anger from opposition fans. And that fact that we now do shows that we're back!

Fair post, but Abdull was sin binned against you wasn't he? I remember someone going off for another crusher on Richardson.

I have not once said otherwise. I agree with you, it wasn't a dirty game.

I don't like the fact that players who are on the receiving end of crusher tackles are said to be play acting. It's can be very painful. There are areas of the game where play acting needs to be stopped, which everyone clearly recognises. But I don't think crusher tackles are one of the areas.



Is that actually true though?? I've never said it myself. Cas last season were exceptional.

Great post.

all yellow cards were spot on decisions. good to see Saints winding people up by being a good team again. big off day today, mind, but kept our heads and got through.

That's embarrassing. Saying "we're back!", when you've won nothing yet?

aside from our good performance today there is another positive to the defeat. it means that we can now concentrate fully on a strong league finish and target a place in the top 4. saints and wigan are still to visit the KC before the super 8s, and then we get 2 weekends off at semi final and final stages. also in the 8s, given a favourable set of fixtures, we might benefit from whoever is in the final having a post match mini slump (like we have the last couple of years). Just need to get a few troops back, especially Sneyd and there's every possibility we could do something at the back end for a change.

need to sort our discipline though, its costing us at the moment.