Friday 23 April 2021 23:57, UK
Brett Hodgson saluted Hull's togetherness as his side battled to a 20-14 triumph over winless Wakefield.
Carlos Tuimavave crossed with seven minutes remaining to seal victory for the Black and Whites, who were still feeling the effects of the Betfred Super League's first draw in the golden point era against Warrington last Sunday.
Wakefield enjoyed most of the territorial battle and had several chances to grab their first victory of the season but Hull's steely defence once again came to the fore at the KCOM Stadium.
Hull remain undefeated under head coach Hodgson following four victories and a draw in five matches and the Australian was delighted with his side's defensive and collective effort.
"I think it's easy to underestimate how much effort and energy we used at last week's game," Hodgson said.
"Warrington used a lot of energy out of our system and the fact that after a five-day turnaround, I think we saw that affect our attacking system today.
"But defensively we worked as hard as I've seen all year and something I'm really proud of.
"I'm learning things about the group every single day and what I learned today was that under a little bit of adversity, with our backs against the wall we came up with the right answers for the majority of the questions.
"I think that the way we were galvanised in working together, particularly when Bureta (Faraimo) got yellow carded, we just kept turning up."
Joe Cator produced another hard-working display and the back-rower was on the field for over 160 minutes over the two matches in the five-day turnaround at the KCOM Stadium.
"Yeah, excellent," Hodgson said of Cator. "Joey did a lot of cleaning-up work which probably wasn't seen, in and around the ruck stuff. He carried the ball strong, he was a physical presence."
Wakefield boss Chris Chester was defiant after the loss - their fifth in all competitions this season - and was confident results will turnaround soon.
"I thought we had a real good dig tonight. We played for 80 minutes. We just didn't help ourselves," Chester said.
"There's a group there that are really busting a gut and we are getting as much as we can out of this group.
"You can't fault the effort, you can't fault the effort for the last four weeks. We just lacked a bit of quality that Hull have got in their team, that's the top and bottom of it.
"We trust what we are doing, we trust the process and I'm fairly confident results are just around the corner.
"This is the fifth game away from home against four of the top five from last year and you have to play for 80 minutes.
"It's just frustrating for the players because I thought their efforts were very good again. We were well in that game and disappointed not to come away with the points."
