SAINTS came back from a sluggish start to see off the depleted Challenge Cup winners, but at times they made it hard work for themselves.

Although they eventually won comfortably against a Hull side that had, according to coach Lee Radford ‘only fallen out of the pub on Tuesday,’ the game hinged on a couple of key moments provided by Adam Swift.

With the game tensely poised at 18-10 with 13 minutes to play, the Saints wing produced an unorthodox tackle to bundle his opposite number Steve Michaels into touch.

And moments later he was dashing through the middle, creating the position from where Atelea Vea touched down the match-settling score.

A further score followed, but the game was much closer than the 31-10 suggests.

It was something of an ugly game, with Saints on a bit of a hiding to nothing against an Hull FC that an handful of legitimate excuses not to perform.

Hangovers and players rested aside, the men brought in were no mugs, not least ex-Saint Leon Pryce who worked well with unlikely looking seven Jordan Abdull in the halves.

Throw in Jack Downs, Iafeta Paleaaesina, Curtis Naughton, Jordan Thompson and Dean Hadley who also missed out at Wembley, and you had a team determined not to roll over.

But Saints gave them a leg up at times, with some aimless play, loose carries and they too often let the Hull kickers pick their spot.

The slowness of the ruck, and the tolerance of flopping after the tackle, stifled Saints at times as they sought to claim their first win in the four meeting between the sides this year.

Saints got off to a dreadful start, allowing centre Mahe Fonua to slip past a dozing defence on the blindside nip in from dummy half for the game's opener.

With the ball Saints executed the big attacking plays poorly at times in the first half, with the last tackle kicks not quite having the finesse of those executed by the still suspended Luke Walsh.

However, Theo Fages and Jonny Lomax clicked together twice to productive effect with the latter twice coming up with killer passes to open up the Black and Whites defence.

Lomax, who remarkably is not yet being talked about with regards England selection despite being the form full back of the comp, sent out a wondrous cut-out pass for Owens to saunter over on 22 minutes.

And then after picking up Fages’ pass off his bootstraps he tossed an unorthodox pass wide for centre Matty Fleming cross the whitewash.

Owens goaled the second one to make it 10-6 at the break, but the ugly first half was characterised by Saints having to defend in the own half as a result of poor handling and some shrewd kicking..

Saints pepped up the tempo a bit after the break, and following Fages’ break Jordan Turner teed the ball up for Vea to power over two defenders.

In the absence of the suspended Luke Thompson and the unavailable Lama Tasi, Saints needed more grunt and power from Vea up the middle – and the Tongan’s enthusiastic stint showed a little of the way he played in his first term in the red vee.

Owens' slotted his second conversion to make it 16-6 but immediately put themselves back under the cosh when Turner watched helplessly as the ball bounced dead for a drop-out.

Hull hauled themselves back into the contest, and, after defending so stoutly, they conceded a soft try when second rower Sika Manu evaded the challenge of Dominique Peyroux to zip over.

A Liam Watts ball steal allowed Owens’ penalty allowed Saints the breathing space of an eight-point lead, but it was all a little too fraught for the home faithful.

But cometh the hour, cometh the Swift who provided three key passages – two tackles and the run the led to Vea’s winning try courtesy of James Roby grubber..

Turner stroked over a drop goal before the hugely improved Owens rounded off the scoring four minutes from time.

Although the game won’t remembered as a classic, the win gives Saints another vital two points to push them further towards securing a semi-final spot but they need to break some of the bad habits that keep rearing their heads – sluggish starts and poor ball control – if they are to win the knockout games.