Salford 16-23 Hull: Josh Griffin hat-trick guides Hull to victory
Last Updated: 07/04/19 8:26pm
A Josh Griffin hat-trick helped Hull FC defeat Salford 23-16 at the AJ Bell Stadium.
The Black and Whites have moved up to fifth on the Super League ladder after condemning the Red Devils to their fourth loss in a row.
The visitors bounced back from their horror 51-point thrashing by Warrington last weekend to edge the home team with an improved second-half display.
The East Yorkshire side started strongly with Sika Manu held over the tryline after just two minutes. Soon after Griffin went through some soft defence to touch down against his former club for the first try of the game. Marc Sneyd converted to give them a 6-0 lead.
Six minutes later Sneyd added another penalty goal to put them a further two points in front.
The Red Devils continued to test Connor Wynne at the back with high kicks, but the debutant was up to the task.
They hit back on 17 minutes, Josh Jones winning the race to Robert Lui's well-placed grubber. Ed Chamberlain added the extras to cut the deficit to 8-6.
Salford were back in the fight and five minutes later Lui forced a goal-line drop-out.
In the next set Niall Evalds dummied and glided over for what looked like the home side's second try. But it was chalked off for obstruction, much to Hull FC's relief.
Salford should have scored two minutes later when they had an overlap on the left, but Jack Logan managed to bat the ball away.
On 33 minutes Logan turned from hero to villain, when he was yellow-carded for a professional foul for holding Chamberlain down for too long, as Salford surged towards the tryline.
Despite being a man down, it was the Black and Whites who scored next through the boot of Sneyd and that gave them a 10-6 half-time advantage.
The Red Devils started the second half brightly with Evalds almost getting over the line. But it was the visitors who crossed first, Griffin picking up the crumbs of a Sneyd bomb.
The half-back nailed his conversion, taking the lead to 16-6.
Four minutes later Griffin barged over for his third four-pointer of the afternoon. The match was slipping from the Red Devils' grasp, but they fought to get back in.
On 57 minutes Evalds touched down in the right-hand corner to give them some hope. Chamberlain could not add the extras, so Hull kept a 10-point buffer.
Eight minutes later Sneyd's third successful penalty goal, after a high tackle on Danny Houghton, made it 22-10.
Time was running out for Salford but they would not lie down and Jackson Hastings powered over with 11 minutes left. Chamberlain converted to make the margin only six points.
However, Ian Watson's men could not conjure up another try and Sneyd kicked a late drop-goal to confirm the win.
