Hull coach Lee Radford says he was encouraged by his team's performance despite suffering a heavy Super League defeat against Castleford.
Radford got a response from his depleted team following their club-record loss at Warrington last week but they were unable to end their long losing run as the Tigers earned a 28-8 win.
In contrast to last week's effort, Hull finished strongly and crossed through Carlos Tuimavave and Hakim Miloudi to give their fans some cheer.
"I'm hugely pleased with the response," said Radford.
"The scoreline and result is against us but everything else is a massive plus and that's a credit to the players. It's a huge pat on the back for them.
"I'm pleased with the senior blokes who steadied the ship and the young blokes brought energy which is all we can ask at this moment in time.
Radford insisted the Black and Whites could turn their nightmare run of form into a positive as they look ahead to 2019.
"Last week looked like a group of blokes that don't care," he added.
"But they're genuinely down and hurting ... we've got to make the most of this position and make sure it never happens again."
In the day's other game, Warrington held on for a 26-24 victory over Huddersfield to open up an eight-point gap over the fifth-placed Giants, with just three games remaining of the Super 8s before the semi-finals.
"We now need to keep raising the bar and keep going up a few more cogs and build momentum into the semi-finals," said Warrington coach Steve Price.
Share
