St Helens' play-off hopes fade after loss to Hull FC

Betfred Super League

St Helens (14) 18

Tries: Murphy, Welsby, Robertson Goals: Hastings 3

Hull FC (14) 32

Tries: Barron 3, Martin, Cust, Bell Goals: Hardaker 4

Harvey Barron's first senior hat-trick inspired lowly Hull FC to a first win at the BrewDog Stadium in nine years as St Helens' season continues to unravel.

The 23-year-old wing struck twice before the interval and once after the break as Hull snapped a seven-match losing streak in Super League.

The defeat leaves injury-depleted Saints, who have never failed to qualify for the Super League play-offs, looking like missing out in seventh place with five games remaining.

After last week's loss at York Knights, a home defeat against the league's second bottom side - in which they missed 49 tackles - was little short of calamitous.

It was only Hull's second away win in Super League this season and moved them above Bradford Bulls into 12th place. It was fully deserved after a dominant second half that blew a fragile Saints away.

St Helens, whose chairman Eamonn McManus confirmed before kick-off that the search for a successor to head coach Paul Rowley had been narrowed down to a "four- or five-man" shortlist, took the lead inside two minutes through left wing Lewis Murphy.

But Hull, without the injured Davy Litten, who has been linked with a move to Wakefield Trinity, hit back with Barron's first try.

The visitors went close twice through the power of Herman Ese'ese but there was no denying wing Lewis Martin, back from a concussion issue that sidelined him for four weeks, who stepped inside Jack Welsby in the 25th minute to give the visitors the lead.

Welsby scorched in from George Whitby's inside pass in the 33rd minute, but Barron went over for his second try with the last play of the half from a chip by Aidan Sezer to tie the scores at the break. And the wing completed his hat-trick seven minutes after the break from Zak Hardaker's pass to give Hull the lead.

Three minutes later Cade Cust went over from dummy half to leave the ten-times Super League champions reeling.

Harry Robertson's try for Saints was chalked off for obstruction and Hardaker's converted penalty following a high tackle by Daniel Suluka-Fifita on Cust put Hull out of range.

Robertson did win a chip and chase to score with eight minutes left but former Saint James Bell picked off an interception try at the death to rub salt into the home side's wounds.

To add to their woes, Saints lost Whitby, who was returning from knee surgery, to a separate knee problem in the second half.

Hull interim head coach Andy Last confirmed after the game that forward Yusuf Aydin would miss the final five games with a knee injury picked up in the first half of Thursday's match.

Last's men will now look to secure back-to-back wins for the first time since March when they host Castleford next Friday, while Saints face a daunting trip to second-placed Wakefield a week on Saturday.

St Helens interim head coach Eamon O'Carroll told BBC Radio Merseyside:

"There were far too many times when we were shooting ourselves in the foot and putting some pressure on ourselves. We're clearly not at that level at the moment where we seem to handle that the way we'd like to or how we have in the past.

"We've got some young boys in there who may have got exposed at times. They will be better for this experience - I'm really proud of the young lads - but at the minute we seem to be swapping one of our younger lads for another younger lad.

"We're then automatically asking a lot of some of our senior boys.

"I think you can see where we are at with that at the minute."

[On play-off qualification] "It's going to be a difficult one for us to achieve, but it's not unachievable."

Hull FC interim head coach Andy Last told Sky Sports:

'It feels absolutely fantastic. I just want to dedicate that to the supporters who have stuck by us and turned up in big numbers. It was great to get a win for them.

"There were some parts of the performance I was really pleased with and some parts of the game we still need to improve [such as] individuals' decision-making, but I'm not going to take anything away from tonight.

"To get a win at St Helens, I'm really, really pleased.'

St Helens: Welsby; Douglas, Sailor, Davies, Murphy; Robertson, Hastings; Suluka-Fifita, Humphreys, Walmsley, Keeley, Wright, Shorrocks.

Interchanges: Host, Whitby, Evans, Matagi.

Hull FC: Moy; Barron, Hardaker, Briscoe, Martin; Arthur, Sezer; Ese'ese, Bourouh, Hill, Batchelor, O'Neill, Bell.

Interchanges: Cust, Aydin, Romano, Wood.

Referee: Liam Rush.