Hull create folklore by winning with 11 men

Hull 24 Halifax 16

Settling into a new home can traditionally be a stressful experience and Hull could not have made it much more difficult for themselves than they did in their fourth round Challenge Cup tie yesterday.

Playing their first game at the bright and shiny Kingston Communications Stadium and watched by 15,310 – their biggest crowd for almost 20 years – they managed for all but a few seconds without their captain, Jason Smith, and for more than half an hour without Richard Fletcher, both sent off for high tackles.

Somehow the 11 men hung on for an unlikely victory that gives their new ground a little bit of its own folklore to build upon following their move from the history-soaked Boulevard.

"It must be some sort of record, playing for so long with 11 men,'' said Hull's coach, Shaun McRae. "We defended very well and put them under some pressure with the ball. When you are down to 11 men, you can't win the game just by defending. You have to score some points.''

For Halifax, it was a golden opportunity missed, as their coach and former No 2 at Hull, Tony Anderson, admitted. "We're a very young side and we'll learn from it, but we made the mistake of throwing the ball from side to side trying to get round them,'' he said.

"I think the sendings-off worked against us because, apart from that, we didn't get too many penalties."

The game was less than 30 seconds old when Smith, so often the mainspring for Hull, flew in high on Chris Birchall and was dismissed by the referee, Steve Ganson.

That looked a serious blow, but it was softened slightly when Hull were awarded the game's first try six minutes later, even though Steve Prescott's final pass to the debutant Colin Best, looked forward.

Halifax led after 15 minutes, thanks to a try and two goals from Dane Dorahy, but Hull were back in front by half-time, after Richie Barnett, also making his first appearance for the club, scored a glorious try, drawing in the full-back and beating him with a change of pace.

Hull scored again immediately after half-time, when a break from the excellent Paul King set up the position from which Toa Kohe-Love got over, but Halifax hit back when Lee Greenwood scored from Liam Finn's long pass.

It seemed certain that sheer numbers must tell when Fletcher was shown the red card for a high tackle on Andy Hobson, but Hull not only held on, they outscored their opponents by two penalties to one as Halifax fell into the trap of looking for the killer pass against a depleted defence.

It made for a memorable introduction to a stadium which, on this occasion at least, had all the atmosphere of the Boulevard. It will not, however, always witness something as stirring as this, nor would McRae relish always doing it the hard way.

"There was a fantastic atmosphere and the fact that we're in the fifth round of the Cup after went on out there is a bonus,'' McRae said.

Hull: Prescott; Best, Barnett, Kohe-Love, Crowther, Horne; T Smith, Greenhill; Last, Logan, Maher, Fletcher, J Smith. Substitutes used: Craven, Cooke, West, King.

Halfax: Finnerty; Greenwood, Donlan, Halliwell, Norman; Moana, Dorahy; Hobson, Lawless, Birchall, Cruckshank, Brocklehurst, McMenemy. Substitutes used: Finn, Penkywicz, Davidson, Seu Seu.

Referee: S Ganson (St Helens).

* The Wigan under-21 players Billy Joe Edwards and Craig Johnson, the brothers of Shaun Edwards and the Wigan centre Paul Johnson, have been killed in a car crash.