WARRINGTON Wolves landed themselves ‘in jail’ during defeat to Hull FC on Sunday, according to the club’s head of coaching and rugby Tony Smith.

The home side led 26-16 with 10 minutes remaining at The Halliwell Jones Stadium, but gave away two quick tries before Marc Sneyd kicked a drop goal to make it 26-27 in the visitors’ favour.

Following a last-minute winning try for his side against rivals Widnes Vikings last week, Smith was disappointed to ended up in a similar position with moments to spare.

“We put ourselves in jail this week – 10 points up with 10 minutes to go,” he said.

“We didn’t manage our time very well, unfortunately, but all credit to Hull. They fought hard all the way through until the end. They threw caution to the wind and it paid off for them.

“We did get out of jail a bit last week – we shouldn’t have been in the position we were in last week.

“We were quite disappointed with our first half today and defensively we were quite poor on our own goal line.”

Smith was particularly frustrated with that goal-line defence after admitting it had earned his side results against Widnes and Leeds recently.

“That’s probably what has got us some results in the last few weeks,” he added. “It went soft again today, so we paid a heavy price for it.”

With the game tied at 26-26 three seconds from time, referee Richard Silverwood stopped play as Chris Bridge was receiving treatment.

From the restart Hull FC quickly worked the ball to Sneyd for the half back to drop the winning point.

“I’ve certainly not seen a stoppage like that,” said Smith. “With a shot set up for a field goal, it was quite unique.

“They were good enough to execute it, and well done to them.”

Wolves lost centre Toby King in the first half to an ankle injury, but Smith insists his side should have been able to deal with the youngster’s absence.

“That happens,” he explained. “That’s part of rugby league. It's unfortunate for the kid, because he was going to get another first grade game.

“But we had an able replacement on the bench, so we were well covered there.”

With Daryl Clark also missing with an injury sustained against Widnes last week, Micky Higham put in a long stint at hooker.

Smith added: “We had a few options there to give him a bit of a break, but Micky can put in some good minutes anyway.

“We had some individuals off their game. We need everybody to be on their game and when they’re off, particularly on goal-line defence, you pay a heavy price.

“We paid a heavy price for some poor defence at times.”