IT TOOK until the last kick of an absorbing encounter — a 25-metre dropped goal by Richard Horne that was sweetly struck after two earlier missed attempts — to secure Hull’s sixteenth win in 17 matches and maintain their persistent, if probably fruitless, pursuit of St Helens at the top of the table.
Defeat was harsh on an outstanding defensive effort by Salford City Reds, who eventually buckled in the fourth minute of added time.
Ben Thaler, the referee, missed Shaun Briscoe apparently being impeded as Hull flooded forward in a last throw of the dice. Salford then scrambled a goalline drop-out, from which Horne landed the winning point.
Hull had kept up the pressure in an agonising final ten minutes to supply Horne and Paul Cooke with similar one-point chances, while all the Reds could muster was a failed long-range attempt from Luke Robinson, Salford’s scrum half linchpin.
“We got into a position to win the game and you find a way when you’re confident,” Peter Sharp, the Hull coach, said.
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For a man who had lost at the death for a second time in six weeks to his former club, Karl Harrison, the Salford coach, was surprisingly upbeat. A place in next month’s play-offs remains a formality. “When we get there, we’ll be a match for anyone,” he said. “We were beaten here by 80 points two years ago. That’s how far this club has come.”
The good work, for Hull, of Cooke’s early penalty goal and conversion of Danny Washbrook’s solo try was undone by Shane McMenemy’s costly dismissal to the sin-bin for a professional foul. Simon Finnigan immediately burst on to Malcolm Alker’s pass for the first of two Salford tries and, within a minute of the second half, John Wilshere burst clear from halfway. Cooke’s second penalty ensured that Salford’s lead was short -lived. For the next 35 minutes, the two packs slugged out a draining battle.
SCORERS: Hull: Try: Washbrook. Goals: Cooke 3. Dropped goal: R Horne. Salford City Reds: Tries: Finnigan, Wilshere. Goal: Hodgson.
HULL: M Tony; N Blacklock, S Domic, K Yeaman, G Raynor; P Cooke, R Horne; E Dowes, R Swain, G Carvell, L Radford, S McMenemy, D Washbrook. Substitutes: S Briscoe, R Whiting, G Horne, S Wheeldon.
SALFORD CITY REDS: K Fitzpatrick; D Hodgson, K McGuinness, A Moule, J Wilshere; A Dunemann, L Robinson; A Coley, M Alker, D Lima, S Finnigan, S Littler, C Charles. Substitutes: D Gower, A Brocklehurst, P Highton, G Haggerty.
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Referee: B Thaler.