Super League: Warrington Wolves too strong for Hull FC
Last Updated: 04/07/14 11:21pm
Teenage winger Callum Lancaster scored a hat-trick of tries on his home debut in a losing cause as in-form Warrington beat Hull 24-18 at the KC Stadium.
The 17-year-old scored all of his side's tries to take his tally to eight in just four appearances as Hull appeared in front of their own fans for the first time in two months.
However, the KC Stadium is a happy hunting ground for the Wolves, who have not lost there since 2007, and they ground out an eighth successive win to maintain their surge up the table.
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.
The visitors 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 Lancaster to open his account.
Centre Joel Monaghan collected Gareth O'Brien's high kick on the last tackle but was prevented from grounding the ball and Hull full-back Jamie Shaul was forced to scramble to deny stand-off Chris Bridge after he had charged down Abdull's attempted clearance kick.
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 conversion 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.
Grubber kick
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, clearly sensing that points would be hard to come by in the difficult conditions.
Both sides continued to fritter 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 the visitors' third try, to which Bridge added his fourth goal.
And there was no way back for the home side 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 from the visitors to get Lancaster over for his third try three minutes from the end and Westerman's touchline conversion cut the gap to just six points but it came too late to affect the result.