The sign of a champion side is one that can win ugly, and wins don't come much uglier than ours last night.

The work rate, commitment and self belief shown last night (mirroring recent weeks) was absolutely fantastic. The error rate may have been a tad too high for all concerned, but we can have no doubts about this team's desire to win games and their hunger for the battle.

There was a thread on here a few weeks back entitled "Do You Believe?". With every passing week that belief grows stronger that maybe, just maybe, we could be witnessing one of the great seasons in the club's history.

Because I've had my fingers burnt too many times in my many years of supporting the club, I'm almost too scared to even contemplate what might potentially happen in the coming months. The scale of possible achievement is almost too much to comprehend after nigh on a decade of floundering underachievement.

I keep waiting for the wheels to fall off (this is Hull Fc we're talking about after all!), but somehow it isn't happening. In it's own tortuous way, last night's victory was the stuff of (potential) Champions. There are still plenty of mighty battles to be won before any crowns are claimed, but we're in there, in the mix, fighting it out at the top of the table and after what has seemed like an eternity of wondering if these days will ever come 'round again, the excitement of what potentially the second half of 2016 could bring is almost too much to bear for this tired old cynical 50+ old chap!

Let's strap ourselves in and prepare for what could just be the ride of our lives, heaven knows we've earnt the right to enjoy ourselves just a little for once.

One final point; if our wildest dreams do come to pass between now and October, then one Gareth Ellis will join Whiteley, Norton, Sterling and Sullivan in the Fc Hall of Fame. Even by his standards, the guy was absolutely immense in his belief, effort and desire to take his team with him over the finishing line last night.

Spot on mate, atm I really believe this could be our year

Ugly win , but great result .
The abiding memory for me , was the players singing Old Faithful with the fans at the end . Great spirit , and a squad of players with a true love of the Club , and playing ability in abdundance .
Long may it continue .

Danny Houghton sang it from the heart.
In his aftermatch interview, Sneyd alluded to a new ball? He said it was very greasy/slippery and accounted for a lot of the mistakes. Is this a new type of ball they've introduced. Remember the last time the slimmer ball was introduced, a lot of teams had problems?
This team just keep getting better and better

DId you tell them to fork off?

They used to call t the Zoo! I Got a tooth knocked out in the toilets there in the early 80's by a skinhead wearing a bishops mitre!!!!!! what a place, tribes of soccer fans looking for a Sunday out, and then at the new ground about 6 seasons ago a full blown scrap between two groups of Wire fans who supported Liverpool and Man U fans broke out on the car park after we beat them in the play offs!!

What a night to be in Black & White !!!
At the game the handling errors didn't seem quite as bad as I'm reading here. The alcohol fuzz helps sometimes. Still fuzzy now lol.

We just felt it was a war of attrition that we always looked like winning despite the conditions. We had to beat the other 13 who had been beating almost every other 13 bar us. ......and we did. End of.

We snuffed out the leagues top try scorers and we looked well organised.
Errors on both sides but It still felt like a champion performance to us. A statement of intent.

Amazing celebrations at the end again. Been going since 1965, and this ride is one of the best ever !!!!
I'm starting to think it could be ............well anyway lets wait and see.

Just get onboard the joyride. Our team is playing great.

EL Capitano is just immense and my man love for him grows weekly.
Looked to be giving a rousing Henry V type speech in the huddle post warm up then led from the front once the action began.
The man is a machine.

Over the hill though aint he Marty boy?

My thoughts and feelings exactly!

Could someone give a brief summary of what the Sky team thought of our performance during and after the game ?
I'm just interested to know if we're getting any credit for once.

Ugly game which didnt befit a top2 clash, was amazed at how many players on both sides were continually holding the ball one handed loose near their own lines despite how many knock ons there had been.

But yet again we dug in and won a game we wouldn't have won over the last few years as the team is fitter and more determined now. Even if we have a big loss of form or bad luck with injuries we'd still be in contention for the top4 with the points we've got so it's a great place to be.

Carney and Wells were pretty complimentary, particularly about the defence.

Clarke moaned all night about what a terrible game it was, how it was a miracle these were the top two sides and how they'd never win anything playing like this. Didn't quite get as far as saying "they're just not Wigan" but wasn't far off. Said he'd never seen Hull play as poorly when the score was 4-6 and said our second try was vital to stop us slipping out of the game even though it put us in front.

Stevo said there were too many silly penalties and started saying the Hull outfit should drive for the posts and go for the one from the 55th minute onwards. Complimentary about Yeaman though and Houghton though, as he always is.

We've actually started watching with the sound down in our flat and doing our own spoof commentary on some games, where Clarke compares somebody to Billy Slater every five minutes and Stevo calls for a one point in the first set.

Looking at the stats we were well worth the win.

We had the same number of carries but made over 100 metres more, we made 5 clean breaks to their 0, and we missed 17 tackles to their 30. The only thing they did us on was offloads (14-5).

Error count was 20 for us and 21 for them, and we conceded 8 penalties to 4.

Those error numbers dont really tell the story though. Lots of ours were in our own end inviting pressure on ourselves, whereas Warrington tended to drop in in good areas, hence much of the game being played in our half.

Regardless of how much ball Warrington put down it's a pretty special effort to stop a team like that from making a clean break.

Phil Clarke was highly dismissive of both sides throughout, constantly berating the lack of quality and basic error count as the game progressed, although to be fair to him, he was hardly alone in having those thoughts.

Eddie Hemmings, in the course of his match commentary and particularly in the post match analysis/chat was a little more positive. His general opinion seems to be that we are genuine contenders in 2016 and I have the impression that he does believe that and isn't simply saying it for the sake of something different.

Stevo, as usual, was fulsome in his praise for Ellis & Houghton but was also distinctly unimpressed by the rising error count in a game between the two supposedly best sides in the competition.

Overall though, we are beginning to make people sit up and notice us with each passing week. This will, of course, bring with it it's own pressure as we become the side to aim for. The down side of being top of the tree.