EAMON O’CARROLL lamented St Helens causing their own undoing after a third defeat in as many games under his interim charge.
A 32-18 home defeat to Hull FC, following on from defeats to Wigan Warriors and York Knights, leaves Saints’ hopes of making the play-offs slim.
“I don’t think the first half was particularly great, although we did put ourselves in a position to go in (for half-time) at 14-all,” said O’Carroll.
“I just think there are far too many times we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. We’re putting pressure on ourselves, and we’re not at the level to handle that the way we’d like to and how we have in the past.
“We didn’t execute what we spoke about in the week – we really simplified things, and the players had some input in that. In the second half it got worse as it went on.
“We’ve got some young boys in there who may have got exposed at times, but with their effort to keep turning up, they will be better for the experience.
“I’m really proud of the young lads. It’s certainly not all on them – by their own admission, our senior boys could be better.
“It looked like some people were trying to solve it on their own, rather than solving it collectively. When you do that against a big pack like Hull, you’ll cause issues for yourself.”
O’Carroll confirmed that George Whitby, making his return following knee surgery, was withdrawn early due to some minor damage to his other knee.
“He was back a week early and he took a bit of a bang so we thought it was time to bring him off,” he explained.