St Helens climbed to fourth in Super League by extending Hull FC’s horror run at home with a 13-6 win on Saturday.
It is 12 games without a win at the MKM Stadium for Hull, a run stretching back to July 20 last year, with Saints prevailing 13-6 thanks to Kyle Feldt’s brace of tries and Jonny Lomax kicking five points.
The visitors, who moved above Leeds in the table, took advantage of several errors from their opponents to open up a 12-0 lead shortly after half-time, although Davy Litten’s try revived Hull’s hopes.
All eight of Hull’s victories this year have been on the road and the wind was taken out of their sails following Lomax’s drop-goal two minutes from time, securing Saints’ 20th win in their last 21 meetings against the Black and Whites.
They went ahead courtesy of Lomax’s 25-metre penalty after Matty Lees was taken out before he had got the ball off Morgan Knowles, before Saints increased their lead on the quarter-hour mark.
Curtis Sironen initially broke away when he pierced a gap in Hull’s defence but while Owen Dagnell and Alex Walmsley got close to the line, Feldt went over on the right flank after spinning past Aiden Sezer.
After Lomax split the posts with a tricky touchline conversion, Saints continued to pile forward but Hull held firm despite undermining their own efforts with several knock-ons in quick succession.
They eventually started to establish themselves as the first half drew to a close, with Lewis Martin only denied in his dash for the corner by a combination of Harry Robertson and Tristan Sailor.
Hull held a brief half-time huddle before heading for the dressing room, although they fell further behind after 45 minutes, with Feldt rising above Martin to grab Moses Mbye’s high kick then turning and touching down past Litten.
After Lomax failed to add the extras, Sezer burst forward from his own half and teed up Litten to get Hull on the board, with Zak Hardaker splitting the posts to bring the hosts to within a converted score.
Feldt came within a whisker of a hat-trick after collecting another Mbye up-and-under and twisting on the line, but his left arm went into touch before his right grounded the ball, while Lomax saw a drop-goal charged down in the final 10 minutes.
However, there was no denying Lomax when he was presented with a second attempt in front of the posts, with the Saints captain booting over from 20 metres to give the visitors a hard-fought two points.
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