Keiron Cunningham Answers: If we have to work 10 times harder, that is what we will do

MC: Sunday was pretty hard to take - what happened?

KC: It means so much for me as a St Helener and it is bitterly disappointing when you don’t perform.

If you perform and lose then you take it on the chin.

Defensively we chose for some reason to have our worst day for a long time, and against a good team it hurts you.

It was set for an absolute blinder and I think with the anticipation around the town beforehand we expected big things.

Our start was amazing and we had put everything in place then a few individual defensive errors let us down and that put Hull back in it and we could not get a foothold back in the game.

In the heat if you don’t get a foothold and don't start winning the energy battle things can turn nasty quickly and it did for periods.

Credit to the team they were still in it at 50 minutes, seven points behind and they were still fighting.

Take nothing away from Hull they played the game hard but we gave them a lot of easy things with soft penalties and soft turnovers.

Luck doesn’t go your way then, you don’t get the bounce of the ball and you don’t get the penalties. That is rugby league.

MC: It was deeply worrying, watching Hull’s big men dominate and see their dummy halves exploit it it – an area that was your big strength as a player.

KC: They killed us around a middle but one thing led to another and it was a vicious circle.

Some of our fittest players looked fatigued, when Wilko and Roby looked gassed you know you are struggling as a group. And we were.

As disappointed as we all are, we have a game Friday night and my team has to be ready. We have spoken in depth, we know where we are headed and just need the fans to hang in there with us and keep the faith. I want the team to do well, just like them and we are working tirelessly behind the scenes to right a few wrongs.

MC: So is the problem with that first contact in the middle and then losing the collision?

KC: It is literally a collision and a body shape thing. Even though it doesn’t look like it at the moment we do work hard on it. It is something that will be rectified. It doesn’t happen overnight, but we will get there eventually and this problem will be solved.

MC: So how can you energise this team now – their heads will be on the floor?

KC: They are but you have got to know where we are heading, we can’t be sailing about like a lost ship in the night.

We know where we are heading, we have got a 10-week block now to get some form together and defence is a bug bear of mine.

It is something we are working hard on.

The way you turn around things that are not going well is by working hard.

If we have to work 10 times harder that is what we will do but we will get to where we want to be eventually defensively as a team.

MC: With it being such a short turnaround do you have much scope to change things for Friday?

KC: It is tough, I generally like having a look at things before I do things so we have one or two ideas, but I like to have a look at it first.

Sometimes you have to shoot a bit blind and that is what we may have to do on Friday. We have got to try and pick our best defensive team just to get a bit of confidence back with the D.

MC: There are these regular spots in the year where you feel the team is getting some wins and then we get another really bad defeat and then it is back to the beginning again.

KC: It is tough for me as a coach because we are working hard with the players on and off but for some reason we can’t string a period of games together.

We are either attacking well and defending poorly or the other way round. We have to be good on both sides of the ball and we have a good challenge ahead of us.

MC: When performances are bad every detail is commented on. You must have expected most of this as coming with the job, but even things like, for example, what you wear on your head on match day is being criticised. Did you expect this level of scrutiny?

KC: I don't go on social media and things like that. For me I am never going to lose focus of where I want to be as a coach and where I want us going as a club. I understand people are frustrated, they pay their money and are entitled to an opinion and can 100 per cent understand that.

I can assure every one of those who are watching the game and criticising me that the players here are working hard and so are the staff.

Things will turn around for the club and we will go in the right direction and I would urge them to have a bit of faith in what we are doing.

Things don't happen overnight but we have do things that will be right for the club moving forward.

We have still got a lot to play for this year and feel the squad is up there with one of the best in the comp but we have to pick the right people in the right positions and then we can get some form going.

MC: Given you have already dropped about three players to the reserves, what sort of sanctions have you got if performances remain unacceptable?

KC: We have got some really good juniors in the reserves and would not think twice about putting one of those kids in. One thing you get from kids is effort and energy.

If people keep underperforming then that is where we will go. But I have still got faith in my squad, even the one that took the field on Sunday. People are entitled to a bad day at the office but it was unfortunate quite a few of them had it on the same day.

MC: Are you happy with the way those senior players are responding in the reserves?

KC: They have done well - JT and Travis Burns have not been whingeing and moaning they have just got on with the job which is tough. Reserves is hard when you are an established first team player. But I am just trying to stabilise the first team.

MC: The door is not shut on Travis Burns, is it?

KC: The door is shut on nobody. You can pick up injuries tomorrow, players can drop out of form or not do the right things for a few weeks.

I have said this to Jordan and Travis - players who are not getting a run. It is a squad of players - even down to the kids, Calvin Wellington, Regan Grace and Ricky Bailey. Everybody has just got to keep trying to improve in the reserves and they will get a shot.

JT and Burnsy will still play plenty of footy this year.

MC: Good to see Matty Fleming score on his return to the reserves?

KC: It is going to be a long hard road for Flem to get back where he was before picking up that neck injury at the start of the year. But he is a talent and had he been fit he would have played plenty of games this year.

MC: Are you going to continue using Jonny Lomax differently in attack and defence?

KC: We will see. We are just trying to save Jonny’s energy because he has not played for 14 months and it is a tough position.

All we are trying to do is trying to put Jonny in the best spots at the right time to make him most effective. We will see how we go this week, but the sooner I can I drop him in at full back and leave him there then the better that will be for everybody all round.