Gentle: Hull keeping feet on ground
Hull head coach Peter Gentle says his side are "staying grounded" despite climbing into the top four of the Super League for the first time this season after beating Leeds 18-6 at the KC Stadium.
Joe Westerman gave Hull an early lead after collecting a one-handed offload from Ben Crooks. Daniel Holdsworth then made it 8-0 with a penalty goal before Crooks finished off a spectacular 70-metre score started by Tom Lineham. Danny Houghton crossed from dummy-half just before the break to give FC an 18-point advantage, with Brett Delaney's second-half try for Leeds closing the gap, but Hull were able to hold on.
"We are staying grounded, we are happy with what we have done," Gentle said.
"It was a real team performance today and we are really proud of ourselves for our defensive effort and they really enjoyed it out there."
It was not a perfect night for the hosts, however, with Gentle admitting he was now nursing some injury concerns.
"Chris Green may have torn his bicep, and Mark O'Meley has torn his hamstring, and I didn't know that prop forwards could do that," he said.
A fourth defeat in a row in all competitions will be tough to take for Leeds, but the visitors' main worry will now be the fitness of two key players, after Kallum Watkins and Danny McGuire left the field with injuries.
Leeds head coach Brian McDermott said: "It's not good news on both fronts. I don't think they will be two or three weeks, I think they will be longer than that. Kallum has got an ankle injury and hopefully finger crossed he hasn't got a break. Danny McGuire has an ankle injury and it's too early to say what it is."
The Rhinos boss was honest in his assessment of his team's performance, and felt they were lucky to be still in the game in the second half after being down 18-0 at half-time.
"I didn't think we were that good in the first 20 minutes and Hull had us in every area of the game," he said. "I think we did well to keep in the game because they had a lot of pressure. We have got to recognise our bravery but there are no awards for that."
