SAINTS coach Keiron Cunningham reflected on the defeat at Hull FC, believing the team is heading in the right direction.

MC: Given how the previous week had gone, then losing Luke Walsh, going 12-0 down and being on the back of the penalties, there were excuses there for the players to give up.

KC: I spoke to the players after the game and said I was immensely proud of the response and the effort. The players had come off the back of a couple of bad losses in the year and it can become quite easy to hold your hands up and say, maybe not this week.

I was proud that the players stood tall for each other when there were lots of reasons against us, but we showed a spirit that we know we have got and know where as a group we can head. It was really pleasing to see that fight, will and want – that is what Saints is about.

We had a lot of disappointed players after the Magic weekend, but I do believe we can kick on from this and do really well in the back end of the year.

MC: There were some similarities with early parts of the Huddersfield game when chances were lost in front of the Hull line?

KC: I thought our attack and enterprise looked really good with the ball in hand.

Apart from missing a little bit of finesse towards the end of sets I thought there was a lot of good stuff in there without practising together.

Added to that Jonny is looking better again.

If we can keep him fit for long periods he is getting better and better with the little things of his full back role.

There are all these things that are going well, but we just have to keep the group together playing well.

Jonny worked really hard – he is still getting his legs back and it will take him another couple of weeks before he is as fully fit as he can possibly be.

MC: Was there an explanation for the disparity in the penalty count?

KC: I will give you one example. Jon Wilkin makes a break, runs through the line for 20 plus metres, is tackled and then it is a ten second play-the-ball.

They do the same thing in the second half and Jonny Lomax tackles him, it is a four/five second play the ball and Jonny gets penalised. To be fair to Gareth Hewer he has been consistently one of the best refs in the competition, but I think the crowd influenced him. I don’t believe they are 10 penalties cleaner than us and a lot of things we got pinged for never happened the other way.

MC: It was tough on Kyle Amor – given how hard he has been working to concede the crucial try like that?

KC: He tries to knock the ball out, but when your luck is going for you it goes straight into their front rowers hands. If it was at the other end you could imagine it bouncing their way too – that is the way luck goes and you have got to ride those occasion.

If Kyle had his chance again, maybe he would have tried to catch it.

MC: What is the update on the other injured players apart from Luke Walsh?

KC: Mark Percival is not far off, not sure when exactly with a leg injury, with Dom Peyroux behind him.

Obviously Tommy Makinson is out for the year.