Gentle: That win must be our benchmark

by NRL

FC coach Peter Gentle refused to get carried away with tonight's 32-18 victory over Hull KR and instead insisted the impressive win must set the tone for the rest of the season.

An injury-hit Black and Whites side that handed debuts to wingers Jamie Foster and Tom Lineham put in their best performance of the season to run in five tries at Craven Park and leap up to sixth on the Super League ladder.

And while unable to hide his delight at the result, Gentle said his players would not get carried away with the win and had already spoken of the game setting a benchmark for the remainder of 2012.

"We've had a very good week, but it's what we do off the back of this now that matters," said the Hull boss.

"They players are already down in the changing rooms talking about this game setting the standard for us now.

"This has to be our benchmark for the rest of the year and we have to make sure our performances don't drop below that.

"We won't be carried away with tonight but we want the fans to as we owed them that win tonight."

Despite falling behind to an early Michael Dobson penalty, Gentle's men hit back with first half tries from Ryan McGoldrick and Jordan Turner to take a 14-2 lead into half-time.

Withstanding a Rovers fight-back after the break by posting second half tries of their own from Kirk Yeaman, Richard Whiting and Tom Briscoe, a reshuffled Hull side produced some free-flowing rugby league in attack and eventually proved too quick for their opposition to handle.

However, Gentle was instead quick to praise his side's defensive efforts against a near full-strength Rovers outfit.

"We built that win on defence tonight and that performance has been building for some time," said Gentle.

"The boys were stewing from our defeat to Catalan last week and they showed some real resolve in their defensive line tonight.

"They really defended as a team, they worked hard for each other and I'm really pleased for them. They fully deserved it."

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