SAINTS boss Keiron Cunningham felt his side deserved something from their keenly-fought encounter with Hull FC at Langtree Park.

They were sunk by a Marc Sneyd drop goal three minutes from time with Hull FC leaving with both points from their 17-16 victory – and even the Black and Whites boss Lee Radford believed a draw would have been a fair result.

Cunningham said: "We have probably played some games this year, put in half an effort we did tonight and won convincingly.

"So as disappointed as I am in the loss, it isn't for myself but for the players. I genuinely believe they deserved something out of the game for what they put in.

"The try before half time hurt us - and there is no one to blame for the goal miss. There was a lot of stuff there for us to win the game. You have to give credit to both sides though and especially my boys. Hull chucked everything at us. They rested six or seven on Monday and brought them back, in fresh.

"We had players pushing through coming off a short turnaround so I am really proud of them. Credit to Hull though, they hung on in there and their belief at the back end of games has won them games. We need to manage the game better at the back end.

"We found something on Monday at Widnes that worked - working hard for each other gets results, and even though the bodies might not have wanted to do that tonight, we found a way to keep on going.

"We had three good ball sets in the second half but we weren't clinical enough. Walshy skews his kick, Fages' effort gets charged down.

“We can take a lot out of tonight and if we have the same effort over the next few weeks we won't be far off."

When asked about the effects of Joe Greenwood’s injury, who took a head knock in the first half and was led off in a groggy state, Cunningham added: "We don't know what's happening with Joe.

“Jon Wilkin went well through the middle and I moved him to spell Joe and the idea was to bring Joe back and move Wilko back to where he was good in the first half. But we couldn't do that.

"When we get some people back we will have more strike. Those nearly opportunities will become definites.

"We will keep on fighting, though. We will deal with it and do our best next week.”