Hull KR: Chairman Neil Hudgell to step down at end of season

Hull Kingston Rovers chairman Neil Hudgell is to step down at Craven Park at the end of the season.

In the wake of his side's record 84-6 Easter defeat by Super League leaders Wigan, Hudgell no longer believes that the current board have the resources to take Rovers to the next step.

"The penny's dropped," Hudgell told BBC Radio Humberside. "I can't achieve the ambition I want for the club.

"Why should we lump in effectively half a million a year just to stand still?"

Hull KR actually responded well to the worst loss in their 131-year history, the Easter Monday mauling by Wigan, by returning to Craven Park to see off St Helens 22-14 on Sunday.

But Hudgell insists that this season will be his last after nine years' service to the club.

"Success to other people might be to get into Super League, or just survive in Super League and try to make the play-offs.

"But, when we took over, our ambition was to make the club successful and win trophies, to make it the same as it was in the mid-1980s when we were the most successful club in the British game.

"After nine years, if I can't do that then it's time to walk away. All our money does is service debt.

"There's been a feeling and realisation over the last couple of years that we were starting to hit a bit of a glass ceiling.

"If you compare ourselves with the really top clubs, there's a gulf in facilities and resources and fan base.

"If there was one real positive from last Monday it's realising that, in some respects, we're light years behind Wigan.

"They have conditioners, sport scientists and have four or five ex-internationals as assistant coaches who earn more money than our head coach."

Neil Hudgell was talking exclusively to BBC Radio Humberside's Gwilym Lloyd.