'It's not pleasant': Tony Smith challenges Hull FC to restore lost pride at St Helens

The Black and Whites have faced fresh questions about their ability to handle adversity in the aftermath of a home drubbing by Salford Red Devils, the fourth time they have shipped 60 or more points since the start of July 2022.

In the last six years, Hull have conceded at least 40 points on 23 occasions.

The latest debacle has left fans fearing the worst ahead of Friday's trip to world club champions St Helens but Smith is desperate to prove last week's showing was a one-off under his watch.

“I can honestly say that the players and coaches are sorry for the way that we went on the weekend," he said.

"It’s not pleasant, it’s regretful and it’s embarrassing, particularly when we had over 11,000 people there watching us and many more watching on the app.

"We feel for them but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves as a group. We need to pick ourselves up and right as many wrongs as we can.

"We can never change that result but we can go and restore some of the pride that we have in our team.”

Defensively Hull were all at sea against Salford, conceding several long-range tries courtesy of gaping holes and others due to soft efforts close to their own line.

Smith admitted that it is taking his team time to get to grips with new defensive structures.

"We’ve been trying to get into some systems and when it didn’t quite work we got rattled," he said.

"We need to learn how to deal with that when it goes wrong and how to get back into the flow of things. That’s not there yet.

"I’m not trying to defend them. We’ve put our hand up and know it’s not good enough – but it’s been and gone now.

"We need to move on now and we are. We've dealt with it, we put our hands up and we reviewed it. We now get ready for the next match.”

Hull face a Saints outfit in a similar boat after suffering back-to-back defeats in the aftermath of their epic World Club Challenge triumph in Australia.

Smith has challenged the Black and Whites to match the four-peat Super League champions' intensity and will to win.

“Saints have lost two in a row but they’re pretty good at bouncing back," he said.

"Hopefully my team can bounce back too. We should have a good contest.

“We’ve got to play well. We’ve got to attack well and defend well. They’re the benchmark and have been for a while.

"They go hard whether on form or not and do things within the game for longer than most other teams. You’ve got to match that.

"I thought Leigh were outstanding against them last week. They deserved to win. They outworked Saints and that takes some doing. That’s what we’ve got to do.

"It’s easy when you say that but we’ve got to go out and do it. Hopefully we can achieve that. We’ll do our best.”

Smith will give the bulk of last week's team the chance to right the wrongs of the 60-14 hammering after making only one change to his 21-man squad, Harvey Barron replacing Jamie Shaul.

Teenage back Davy Litten is one player knocking on the door of Smith's team.

"He’s a terrific young man and had an outstanding pre-season," said Smith.

"I’m sure whenever he gets the nod he’ll do his best, that’s for sure."