Hull coach Lee Radford praised his side's resilience following their dramatic comeback victory over Super League derby rivals Hull KR.
The visitors to the KC Lightstream Stadium trailed 20-0 with 20 minutes remaining but rallied brilliantly to clinch a 22-20 win and with it the two points.
Despite being held at arm's length for the first hour, Radford hailed his team's determination to mount a recovery.
"We were outstanding without the ball for the first 60 minutes," Radford said. "We played a lot better when we were forced to push the pass.
"We looked a much better team.
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"The penalty count at half-time was 7-3 and we knew that would even itself out and we'd get opportunities down their end of the field, and we took them."
The result took Hull to eight points for the Super League season and kept their top-four hopes alive.
In conceding 24 points in the last two games, Radford paid credit to his players for digging deep to win.
"We want to be in the top four," Radford said. "We've only had one bad performance.
"We have defended well in the last two games and that should give us confidence going forward."
James Webster looked set to be the first Hull KR coach to win his first competitive derby in living memory, until his side collapsed in the final quarter.
However, he defended his battle-weary players for leaving nothing in the tank.
"I'm extremely proud of my players," Webster said. "For 60 minutes we did what we wanted to do, but we had nothing left.
"I felt sorry for the players who were screaming to come off, but had to stay on.
"I'm very disappointed we lost the game. People might have expected me to blame the players, but I'm not going to.
"We showed improvement and I can see we are moving in the right direction."
