ROYCE Simmons praised Saints’ toughness as they beat Hull FC on Friday.
His side recorded a 28-14 win; their first in four attempts, to keep in touch with third place in the Engage Super League.
“We have come through a tough period,” he said. “We had a lot of players in the Origin game and then followed that up with a hard game at Bradford in bad conditions.
“Then we had the games against Wigan and Warrington so to get a win tonight was important and I have rewarded the lads with three days off to recover.
“I thought Tony Puletua was outstanding tonight and provided really good go forward when we needed it most. Scott Moore brought a lot to us too and he took the line on with speed.
“And I was happy for Lee Gaskell too; he has been a little off the ball over the last few games, which is usual for a young kid, and he came out and was really good. He took the ball in well, with speed, threw some good passes and set up Chris Flannery’s try.
“I thought we defended well too. But over the last couple of weeks our ball control hasn’t been good and it’s been getting us into trouble.
“It was good early on tonight and it set us up a good lead. But then we fell away to about 65 per cent and that is terrible.
“We continued that on in the second half, but then for 15 minutes it was fantastic and we put the game beyond doubt.
“We know we still have to continue to work on that.”
Josh Perry has damaged his hamstring and will probably miss the trip to Wakefield next week.
Better news though as Paul Clough has been given the all clear to return.
