Hull prop Scott Taylor believes the Black and Whites may need to win all three of their remaining games before the Super 8s to avoid falling out of play-off contention this season.
Lee Radford’s side have won two of their last five games, and they are now five points behind fourth-placed Castleford following last Thursday’s defeat to Huddersfield.
Games against St Helens, Wakefield and Hull KR complete FC’s regular-season fixtures – and Taylor admits it is imperative they put together a run of form.
“We’ve got three more games before the split and the start of the Super 8s – and we have to go three from three,” he said.
“I think were going to have to in order to put some pressure on the teams above us and get where we need to be. We’ll speak about it, but if we don’t get three from three over this next block of games, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on us going into that split.”
Taylor admits that the loss of a number of key players for prolonged periods has harmed Hull’s ability to maintain consistency – but he insists that is not an excuse for a club who aspires to win major trophies on a regular basis.
“I think it’s important to point out there are players out of position and key men have been missing all over,” he said.
“We’ve had five or six of our starting 13 missing, and playing lads like Liam Harris and Brad Bash, who aren’t used to playing every week in Super League. If you were doing it right with numbers you could drip-feed them in and expose them to this level slowly, but we’re doing it tough.
“That isn’t an excuse for this form, though. If we want to make a Grand Final this year, we’re miles away at the minute. Yes, there’s 10 games left, but we’re running out of time to cement a play-off spot. We can’t leave it a few more games because we might run out of time.
“Everyone at the club knows where we need to be, and that’s the top four and in contention for the Grand Final. It’s frustrating, but also we know we can’t rely on other teams to do us favours now this season. We’ve not managed to get any consistency together this year, and we need to sort out that if we’re to stand a chance.”
