Hull FC 38 Widnes Vikings 18

NEIL Kelly will be hoping his team can "smarten up" before Sunday's clash with Bradford Bulls after needless errors led to their third consecutive Super League defeat.

As with their games against Leeds and St Helens, the Vikings had looked good going into the second half at the KC Stadium last weekend, trailing Hull just 18-16 at the break.

But mistakes and misdemeanours again proved their undoing, with the home side eventually making the game safe in the last 10 minutes.

"We're doing a massive number of things right and causing problems but it's poor basic errors we're paying a big price for," said Widnes head coach, Kelly.

"It is the workload we're asking them to do through those errors that we are suffering late in games.

"I am very pleased with the level of football but we have got to stop making those errors and smarten up.

He went on: "But I don't think it is all right to play well and lose, we have got to get some league points on the board. We feel Sunday against Bulls is another opportunity to go on and get a win. We need a win against a team of their calibre."

But aside from Widnes' performance, Hull also had a part to play in their victory, with nine goals and a try clocked by former Vikings trialist, Steve Prescott.

The home side got off to a flying start, with Aussie loose forward Jason Smith coasting in under the posts after excellent work by his namesake Tony. Prescott added the conversion and quickly followed it up with a penalty to make it 8-0.

Stuart Spruce pulled four points back as Widnes exploited the short side but a knock-on from the kick-off by Julian O'Neill allowed Richard Horne to ghost in for a six-pointer at the other end.

The Vikings hit back with two tries in 10 minutes from winger Jason Demetriou and impressive substitute forward David Mills, Demetriou latching onto a Dean Lawford cross-field bomb while Mills bulldozed his way over from close-range from a Shane Millard switch.

Prescott and Adam Hughes traded penalties just before the interval to leave the game finely balanced, despite Widnes' three tries to Hull's two.

Just five minutes into the second half and yet another penalty goal for the home side was followed by a Prescott try in the corner, to which he added a superb conversion.

Neither side seemed able to satisfy the high standards of referee Russell Smith at the play-the-ball and his patience snapped as he sent Daniel Frame, Chris Percival and Hull's Ritchie Barnett to the sin-bin in quick succession.

Further penalties were swapped leaving the score 26-18 with 10 minutes left.

Widnes needed the next score and when it looked as though they might get it, Hull's ex-Warrington centre Toa Kohe-Love latched onto a loose kick from Frame to race 90 metres to the line, despite a valiant chase from Hughes.

Prescott's conversion just about wrapped the game up at 32-18 but there was still time to rub salt into the wound as prop Scott Logan barged over for a late converted try, giving the final score a slightly lop-sided look.

"We're pleased with the way we played and obviously the large penalty count against us contributed to that score line," said Kelly after the match.

"We took 10 minutes to start the game but once we got going we always felt we could cause Hull some problems. Too often we shot ourselves in the foot by doing the wrong things."

Widnes: Spruce (1t); Giles; Demetriou (1t); Hughes (3g); Percival; Frame; Lawford; Relf; Millard; O'Neill; Potter; McCurrie; Bird; Subs: Mills (1t); Atcheson; Finnigan; Farrell.