WARRINGTON Wolves continued their push up the Super League table with their eighth consecutive league victory and ninth on the bounce as they beat Hull 24-18 “in a tough old conditions” at the KC Stadium.
Wolves boss Tony Smith was delighted with the victory which saw Warrington climb to fourth in the table, just two points off the top, although St Helens have a game in hand.
The KC Stadium is a happy hunting ground for the Wolves, who have not lost there since 2007.
Hull lost scrum-half Richard Horne with concussion after only five minutes but Aaron Heremaia proved a useful replacement and they opened the scoring with a penalty from teenage stand-off Jordan Abdull.
Warrington struggled most with the wet ball and Hull punished a fumble by hooker Micky Higham on 17 minutes, with Abdull kicking the loose ball on for teenage winger Callum Lancaster to scorfe his first of three tries
The Wolves’ first try eventually fell to loose forward Stefan Ratchford but the architect was full-back Matty Russell with a determined 60-metre run in which he fended off a host of would-be tacklers to create the position for Monaghan
to supply the final pass.
Bridge’s kick tied the scores but Joe Westerman edged Hull back in front with a penalty before Warrington struck again in the final minute of the first half when Gareth O’Brien came up with a perfectly-weighted grubber kick that bounced kindly for centre Ryan Atkins to touch down, with Bridge adding the goal to make it 12-8 at the break.
Bridge extended the lead with a penalty early in the second half, sensing points would be hard to come by in the difficult conditions.
Both teams continued to give away possession and Hull took full advantage of Wolves winger Gene Ormsby’s knock-on from a scrum on his own 20-metre line.
Skipper Gareth Ellis got over the line only to lose his grip on the ball but then sent out a superb pass for Lancaster to finish decisively to claim his second try.
Westerman’s missed kick left his side trailing by two points and they fell further behind on the hour when Ben Harrison took O’Brien’s pass to charge over for Warrington’s third try, to which Bridge added his fourth goal.
There was no way back for Hull when Monaghan split their defence on 66 minutes for Bridge to get Ormsby over for their fourth try.
Hull made the most of another handling error to get Lancaster over for his third try three minutes from time and Westerman’s touchline conversion cut the gap to just six points but it came too late to affect the result.
Wolves boss Tony Smith was proud of his teams performance in “tough old conditions.”
He said: “I thought we were terrific. Hull had a right dig and the conditions and the environment and a hostile crowd made it a tough old game but I thought my players handled it well.
“They gave us nothing in the first half – I think their first error was 55 minutes into the game – but I didn’t think they troubled us defensively. I thought our defence in the first half was awesome, as good as I’ve seen this year probably.
“I was really proud of them in the second half as well.”
Ben Harrison heads for the line
Try scorer Stefan Ratchford
